


House of Wolves

by xSpookyScarySkeletonsx



Series: Hollow Fears to far Chances [1]
Category: Thief (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-01 21:53:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4035901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSpookyScarySkeletonsx/pseuds/xSpookyScarySkeletonsx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrett takes on a job - with the only real competitor he has in town.<br/>But things don't go as expected and he finds himself in a lot of trouble.<br/>(I suck at writing summaries, sorry)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place a couple of years before the events in the game and everyone is a little bit younger than I assume they really are.

“No. Absolutely not.”  
Basso sighed. This had seemed like a great idea. Admittedly, he knew it was going to be difficult at best to get the two thieves to work together, but he hadn't expected them to circle each other like two dogs ready to rip the others throat out either. Did dogs rip each other's throats out? He wasn't quite sure. He was a fucking entrepreneur (as he liked to put it), not a damn dog expert. He didn't want to say the thought out loud either, knowing there'd be a smug comment from either one of the two figures in the shadows.  
"At least we agree on that," the woman finally replied, breaking the silence.   
“Look,” he said. “I know you both like working by yourselves. But my source says the diamonds will be hidden in a massive safe and it takes at least two people to open the door of the damn thing.”  
Garett moved away from the window he had been leaning against to make his way over to a small table. He picked up a trinket to spin it around in his hands, assess it, before putting it back down.   
"I can do it by myself," he muttered.   
Basso decided it was time for a change of strategy. Lyn was the less taciturn, more approachable one of the two of them. If he could get her to open up a bit and admit she wouldn’t be able to do it by herself, Garrett might feel better about the whole thing, knowing he’d be the important one and all.  
He watched the woman for a second, thinking about something good to say. She was leaning against a shelf, arms crossed in front of her chest. “Come on Lyn, you gotta admit you can't move that heavy stuff alone.”  
She glared at him even more. Well, that probably hadn't been the right thing to say.   
“Ya know what? I'll pay you both double.” Extra coin always did the trick, right?   
Lyn scoffed before she hissed, “That'll surely be useful when I'm dead 'cause he screwed up.”   
Basso flinched at that. Garett most likely wouldn't take that insult too well.  
“I'm sure you don't need my help to get yourself killed,” he retorted.  
For the first time that night, the corner of Lyns mouth twitched upwards in amusement for a second.   
“Now or never,” Basso thought.  
“Why don't you two just do some scouting together tomorrow, y'know, have a look at the house, do some planning. It's the old Villa over in Auldale. The owner of house is actually the Barons wife's sister, the little blonde one with the...” he stopped as Garett raised his eyebrows at him. “Right, you don't care. Anyway, just see how you go tomorrow. If ya still say no, I'll find someone else to do the job.”  
“Fine,” Garett said. “Meet me at midnight tomorrow.” He disappeared into the shadows at the back of Bassos office, then climbed out of a window. This was ridiculous. He was the damn master thief; he didn't need anyone to work with. But he had heard so much of the woman and her skills that he had decided to show up at Basso’s anyway. She had quite a reputation, but so did he. He had simply wanted to know if his ‘competitor’ really was a reasonable competitor or just another fraud. And when Basso had explained the job, it just sounded too good to miss out on. Stealing the queen’s diamonds out of the hands of the watch – he couldn’t think of a better job. The only downside was the apparent size of the safe, and Basso therefor only giving the job to two people that were willing to work together. Garrett scoffed at the thought. He didn’t need help. He’d be able to figure something out by himself. But the other thief would turn out to be an imposter anyway. That was why he hadn't felt the need to specify where to meet him either. If she really was as good as Basso had said, she'd know where the best place to scout was. And if she wouldn't show up - well, that'd only prove she wasn't all that capable.  
He shook his head to clear his thoughts before heading out on the rooftops.

Back in Bassos office, Lyn was still leaning against the shelf, listening to Basso complain.  
''So where the hell are you gonna meet? Here? Why the fuck didn't he say that before he ran off? How are you s'possed to find him like that?”  
“Wherever the best place to scout is,” she thought to herself. It was a test, obviously.  
Ridiculous.  
“Seriously, you two do realise I'm gonna be in some serious shit if you fuck this job up, right?” Basso was just finishing his rant.  
Lyn sighed inwardly before saying “You worry too much, Basso.” Then she disappeared into the night herself.

Basso shook his head. Damn taffers, didn't even get along with each other. He considered them both to be fairly reasonable, even though they were the two most stubborn people he had ever met. He had taken his time, explaining how his client had first hired someone else to do the job, how they had screwed up and how the whole place was crawling with guards now. Neither one of the thieves seemed impressed by that. Basso poured himself a glass of wine and sat down. No point worrying now, he'd just have to wait how things would turn out the next day. 

Garett made his way over to Auldale early the next night, wanting to be there before the other thief. He found a perfect spot on top of a house just across from the old Villa. There was a massive stone wall around the property at the back of the villa, and while it wasn't impossible to climb, it was almost impossible to tell what was behind it. Guard dogs, he guessed. Possibly guards. Hidden traps. He couldn't be sure so it wasn't exactly safe to try and enter the building that way. That would leave him with either the front, or the sides of the house, just in front of the wall. The front would be risky though - too many guards. There were two at the front door, one at the servant’s entrance and another three circling the property. But he did spot a small window at the side of the building, perfectly accessible from the top of the stone wall and nicely out of the guard’s views. That's where he'd enter. Well, he and... Lyn, or whatever her name was.   
Looking up he realized it was almost midnight. Maybe she wasn't even going to show up.   
He sighed softly and tapped his fingers against the tiles of the roof he was on. The night was clear, the stars standing out brilliantly against the dark sky, yet not bright enough to clear the thick shadows in the alleys.   
Garrett almost missed the soft footfalls behind him. By the time he had turned around, Lyn was already next to him. She was quiet, he had to give her that.  
"Didn't think you were going to show up,” he said as she dropped down next to him.   
Lyn said nothing and studied the villa instead. That gave Garrett the chance to study her. She wore tight leather gear and a harness, not unlike his own. The only difference was that hers seemed to be of better quality. The leather was soft and barely creaked, clearly looked after very well. The paddings that protected her knees, elbows and shoulders were held in place by meticulous rows of stitches. She wore what Garrett thought to be a scarf, tucked under the top part of her armour, covering her head and probably easily transformable into a mask. She definitely looked professional and well-equipped.   
Garrett thought she was about the same height as him, but wasn't quite sure. Other than that, she seemed thin but muscular, just like him. The only thing that seemed out of place was the way she was nervously biting the left side of her bottom lip while studying the house.   
Garrett looked away quickly when she shuffled slightly and said, “That window. Left side of the house. Just over the wall.”  
It was the same window he had chosen.   
“There's three guards at the doors and another three doing rounds.”  
The woman tilted her head slightly.   
“We can’t really take any of them out,” she replied, thinking out loud. “We'd risk one of them setting the alarm off. A distraction would be good.”  
“See that crate over there?” he asked, pointing to the right, where a crate was hanging from a small crane next to a house.  
She turned around to see what he was pointing at.   
“We'll make that drop, wait for some of the guards to go check on it,” he continued.  
The other thief seemed to consider this for a minute, then nodded.   
“Same place, same time tomorrow?”  
It was Garrett’s turn to nod.   
Lyn got up and made her way off the rooftop.  
Garrett waited a couple of seconds before following her. He just needed to see where she was going, see if she went to see someone to set him up. The thief didn't think Basso would ask him to work with someone he didn't consider trustworthy, but you could never be careful enough. Better safe than sorry. Or in his case, better safe than hanging from a noose.  
Lyn really was extremely silent. Had he not been watching her closely to follow her, he probably wouldn’t have noticed she was there. The thief quickly made her way across the rooftops, towards the river. Eventually she climbed down the side of a building near a small stream, snuck across a street and dove into the shadows. Garrett followed her but quickly realised he had lost her in the dark. He frowned and looked around. It took him a couple of seconds to find a small passageway in the shadows between two abandoned houses. Behind it was a small yard, right next to the stream. There was no sign of the other thief though so he took a guess on where to go. He gently pushed a slightly battered wooden door open and headed into the dark hallway beyond it, pushing the door shut behind him. A long hallway stretched out in front of him and he decided to follow it, carefully checking for traps as he was moving along. The hallway ended in a blocked door. Garrett went back to where he had entered the building and realised there was another hallway leading down to the other end of the house. There was another wooden door at the end of it and it was only now that he noticed the flickering light coming out from under the door. Silently he crept towards it while checking for any traps again and stopped a couple of inches away to check for any noises. It was quiet except for what sounded like the soft crackling of fire. Unfortunately the door had no keyhole he could have peered through so he couldn't be entirely sure that the room was empty. Well, empty except for maybe the other thief. One hand on his blackjack, Garrett pushed the door open. The room really did appear empty, although clearly inhabited by someone.   
“So, you done following me now?” a voice suddenly said and Garrett jumped a little at the noise. Cursing himself inwardly he realised that Lyn must have been waiting next to the door frame and when he opened the door, he hid her behind it. He should have checked there first - it was out of his sight and anyone hiding there could have easily attacked him. Lyn walked away from her hiding spot now, towards the centre of the room where she turned to face him. “There you go, this is where I live. Feel better now?”  
Garrett defensively crossed his arms in front of his chest and stepped away from the door, the open space behind him making him feel vulnerable.   
“At least shut the door if you're not going to say anything, it's cold,” Lyn hissed.  
He shut the door and resumed his position. They stood in silence for a minute or two, Garrett feeling more and more uncomfortable by the second. He didn't know what he thought was going to happen when he walked right into this place. It had been a stupid move. If there had been people here waiting for him, they could have easily taken him out - he wasn't the best at fighting and he knew it. Yes, he had checked for traps. But that was the only thing he had really done to keep himself safe. He had been so caught up in his distrust and proving how dangerous it was to trust someone once again that he had forgotten about everything else. And even though things had worked out and it seemed to be only Lyn here - what did he think was going to happen? That she'd be pleased to see him, offer him a cup of tea before walking him back out the front door?   
“Look,” Lyn said suddenly, in a surprisingly gentle voice. “You don't trust me, I get it. I don't trust you either. But sneaking after me to see where I'm going? That's a bit low, even for a thief. And did you really think I was stupid enough not to notice?” There was something dangerous, threatening in her voice now. “You agreed to this job as much as I did. So either get over yourself and get the job over with, or crawl back to Basso and tell him you won't do it.”  
Garrett almost flinched at the sharpness of her words. This was exactly why he never worked with other people. It only made things far more difficult than they had to be. But he couldn't go back to Basso now either. The fence would demand an explanation and while Garrett surely wasn't going to give him one, he was fairly positive the other thief would make sure Basso would know how foolish Garrett had acted. And there still was the fact that he just couldn’t pass on that job. No, he couldn't back out now. He simply left the other thief’s hideout.

Lyn sighed to herself before dropping down on her bed. The old wooden framework creaked in protest but she ignored it. It had been an interesting night. She understood the doubt - you couldn't afford to trust the wrong people with a 3000 coin bounty on your head. But just walking right into her hiding place? That seemed a little odd. Garrett clearly hadn't even had a plan. The woman wondered if it really was a good idea to do that job with him - he seemed to be too focused on mistrusting her to get his thoughts together and focus on his occupation. There was a good chance he'd get them both killed the next night. But Lyn didn't want to back out of the job either. The reward was good, the rest of the loot sounded promising. Then again, if she was honest with herself, that wasn't even why she had agreed to the job in the first place. One of her sources said that there weren’t only diamonds in that safe. There were also construction plans for a new safe the watch had been building recently. Her source knew where the safe was, but didn’t know anyone who’d be able to open it. By getting those plans, Lyn knew she’d be able to work out how to crack that lock and then she’d get her source to tell her where that damn safe was. After all, she was the queen of locks; nothing could be hidden from her. She just had to be the one who defied the watch and their stupid new contraption.   
The young woman was fully aware just how dangerous that frame of mind was - it could get her into some serious trouble because she'd never be able to keep her hands off anything locked.  
She shook her head to get rid of the thoughts. If she headed out now, she could still get something good out of this otherwise miserable night. But she didn't really feel like going out again so she unbuckled her harness, dropped it on the ground and reached for a novel that was sitting on a barrel next to her bed. Trying her hardest to focus on the book, she read the first couple of pages but had to admit she couldn't actually remember any of the words. Something was bothering her but she didn't quite know what. Closing the book and setting it back down on the barrel, she went through the events of the night again. Lyn frowned as one particular image formed in her mind. When Garrett had showed up and she had given him her little speech, she had been angry. So naturally, her words had come out sharp, but she had forced herself to stay calm. Her temper always tried to get the better of her, something that could easily become a problem for a thief. Yet Garrett had seemed to - well, she wasn't quite sure. There had been something in those brown eyes, but it was hard to point out what. She doubted it where her words that hurt him. They barely knew each other and being a thief, you were used to everyone hating you. She replayed the scene again in her mind. Her words had implied he wouldn't be able to do the job, maybe that was it. His carefully guarded expression had dropped for a split second, revealing some sort of worry beneath it. Well he had just walked into a building he probably didn't know, missed out on realizing she was in the room. She assumed he had then realised how reckless he had been and probably doubted himself. Or something like that.  
“You think too much, idiot,” she muttered to herself and grabbed her book off the barrel once again.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Lyn meticulously checked her equipment, then checked everything again. She knew the job was going to be dangerous - after all, they were going to steal the Queens diamonds. And that after someone else's failed attempt earlier that week. In fact, she knew the young thief who had been captured. He hadn’t been very talented, but he had been a sweet-talker and did a good job selling his (non-existent) skills. He had set one of the dogs off and while trying to flee he had bumped into a group of guards who had of course captured him. They had hung him the next day, for the whole city to see. Thiefs were captured every day. A lot of them were hung or spent ages locked up. There really wasn’t anything special about it, but the thought still made her shudder, an unpleasant reminder of what would happen to her should she ever be caught. Well, technically she had been caught before. Caught and thrown into prison. But they had never been able to keep her there; she had always managed to find her way out somehow. Shaking the dark thoughts off she got dressed, making sure every buckle was fastened properly, everything was laced up right, every piece of equipment where it was supposed to be. While her life mostly depended on her skills, she also relied a great deal on her gear and it had saved her before. Everything needed to be in place perfectly, no room for mistakes.  
Eventually she grabbed a pair of leather gloves and pulled them over her hands. They were thin and fit her like a second skin, protecting her hands while climbing, yet still leaving her with a perfect range of motion.

Leaving her hideout, she made her way back to the rooftop she had met Garrett on the night before. When she arrived, Lyn realised she was half an hour early. She dropped down in the shadows of a chimney, stretching her legs. The position gave her a good view of the house they'd be entering, and she watched the guards circle the property. They carried a small torch with them, but the thing kept sputtering and Lyn was surprised the flame hadn't suffocated yet. The night wasn't even particularly windy and it wasn’t raining either. The torch should have been burning just fine. It took her a few minutes to notice that one of the guards kept swinging it from left to right furiously while walking, presumably to check the shadows around him. Poor bastard. Not even the cheapest little trickster would fall for that. Chances were he’d set something on fire instead of catching anyone. It would be funny to watch, though. The guard with the torch setting fire to the guard next to him, then tripping over himself trying to find some water to put the fire out. “At least he’d burn a lot better than that pathetic little torch,” the woman thought to herself. Then she frowned. It was a violent, cruel thought. But she couldn’t bring herself to feel bad about it – if those guards got their hands on her, they’d do things far worse than being set on fire. Her thoughts came to a sudden halt when she heard a soft scraping noise, followed by footsteps. 

Garrett stopped in a crouch beside her, cleared his throat and asked “Ready to go?”  
Lyn didn't reply and simply got up and moved closer to the edge of the roof.   
The street below was empty so she started climbing down the side of the house, her feet softly landing on the cobblestones beneath her. It had been Garrett who had suggested making the crate drop, so she assumed he would take care of it. She was right. Garrett pulled up his bow, drew an arrow and aimed carefully. Lyn watched and tried not to be jealous. She couldn't aim to save her life. Literally. Yes, she carried a small dagger but that was only to cut ropes, maybe close combat. It would make a great weapon if she could aim and throw it. But she couldn't. Chances were she'd miss entirely if she were to throw it. Or maybe it'd hit a watchmen in the face with the hilt, but that wouldn't even take one of them out. Now she watched as Garrett’s arrow flew through the air and perfectly cut through the ropes that held the crate up. Said crate raced towards the ground, then hit the cobblestone with an ear-splitting noise. The guards surrounding the entrances to the building left their posts immediately to investigate the noise and the two thieves soundlessly slipped through the shadows towards the stone wall at the side of the house. They climbed it just as silently and crouched down on top for a minute to catch their breath. “Nice shot,” Lyn whispered and she genuinely meant it. The art of shooting bows had always been fascinating to her. Garrett said nothing, which didn't come as a surprise. He simply started making his way towards the second level window, which they had chosen to enter the building. Lyn followed him and by the time she had reached the window, he had already opened it and was just about to slip through. Once he cleared the path Lyn followed him, careful not to bump against the frame. Then she shut the window behind her, leaving no trace of the intrusion. Garrett had already snuffed out a couple of the candles that had lightened the hallway before, leaving the place in soft shadows. Basso had told them the safe was located somewhere in the basement and Garrett pointed towards the stairs. Lyn crept past him, careful to avoid a big porcelain vase that was placed on the ground. She had knocked one over at one of her first jobs ever and it had forced her to run very very fast for a very very long time. She wasn't too keen on experiencing that again. When she reached the top of the stairs she crouched down besides the ledge, checking for any guards on the lower levels. It was then that she heard the footsteps behind her. Garrett was still in the hallway, eyes flickering towards the source of the noise. Lyn quickly spun around and discovered a door just across from her. She peeked through the keyhole and discovered that the room behind it was dark. Then she gently pushed the door handle down. They both slipped into the room just in time and Garrett shut the door behind them.   
“Damn candles,” the guard mumbled. “Fucking wind must have blown them out.” They heard him strike a match and re-light the candles. When the watchman’s footsteps faded away, the two thieves carefully snuck back out of the room.  
Lyn checked for any guards on the lower level again but still couldn't see any so she made her way down the stairs. Basso's client hadn't given them any information on how to get to the basement, and Lyn had hoped there’d be another staircase somewhere near the first one. But of course there wasn't. “Would've been too easy,” she thought to herself. She snuffed out a couple of candles that were sitting on top of a small cupboard. 

They went through various rooms in the old Villa, but found nothing that pointed them towards the diamonds. Eventually they made it to what looked to be an office. There were no guards there and the door wasn’t locked either.  
The two of them went through various shelves and drawers in the office first, but couldn’t find anything of value. Lyn tried her hardest not to sigh as she pushed another drawer close. Nothing. She couldn’t find anything at all. Great.  
Suddenly Garrett turned around and held out a piece of paper for her to read.  
“A riddle? I’m not really into that kind of stuff.”  
“They're numbers. Might be the combination for the safe.”  
She looked back down on the document, reading the words more carefully this time.  
'When the baron started reigning, the numbers were the same. When the Marlham name was falling, no one was to blame.'   
“I assume this is about the current Northcrest? I doubt he'd let this be about anyone else.”  
Garett nodded in agreement and seemed to think about when the baron started... well, started being the baron.   
“808,” he said then. “The first number.”  
“The Marlhams were in charge before the Northcrests,” Lyn thought out loud. “The last Marlham died… 578.”  
She looked over at Garrett and the man raised an eyebrow. “Good with numbers?”   
“I read a book about the barons the other day,” the woman replied, rolling her eyes.  
Garrett gave her an amused look before returning to his usual guarded expression. “I saw an air vent earlier, might get us down to the basement.”  
Lyn thought about that for a moment. Air vents weren't exactly her favourite way of getting anywhere, but they could be useful at times and usually gave you the possibility of going around unnoticed. There'd most likely be more and more guards the closer they'd get to the safe, so the air vent was simply the safest way.   
“Alright, let's go then,” she said. The woman followed the other thief out of the office, down the hallway towards the stairs and waited for him to open the ventilation shaft. When the panel came off, she watched Garrett climb inside the shaft and then climbed in herself before putting the panel back in place. The vent wasn't very big, but they both fit in easily - one of the few advantages of being small. Suddenly Garrett stopped and Lyn almost bumped into him. The voices of two guards were drifting up from one of the rooms below them. 

“You on duty down there now?” the first guard said. There was no verbal answer so she assumed the second guard had nodded.   
“Fucking cold and damp in that shithole. Can't wait to get some coffee.”  
“It's all for the queen!” the second guard replied.   
“The Queen can suck my dick.”  
Both watchmen started laughing and moved on.   
Garrett started moving again as well and Lyn followed him. After a couple of meters she first noticed a cold draft and from there on, the air seemed to be getting colder and colder.   
Eventually they reached another opening panel in the air vent. Garrett silently climbed over it, then somehow managed to turn around to face her.   
Lyn looked down. It was fairly dark in the room below them and it looked empty.  
“We’re going out here?” Lyn asked. Garrett nodded so she unscrewed the panel and carefully slid it sideways under herself. With the other thief in the small vent as well, there was no room for her to get out of the whole thing gracefully. She dropped out of the vent head first and caught her fall by doing a roll right after hitting the ground. Garrett landed on his feet next to her just as she stood back up. Glancing at him for a second she noticed the amused expression on his face. Smug bastard.   
The two thieves soundlessly made their way through the cellar rooms. They didn't come across any guards, which was good. They didn't come across the safe either, which wasn't good. When they eventually ended up in the same room they had started out in, they both stopped and looked at each other.  
“Something's not right,” Garrett said frowning.   
“Oh, really?” Lyn muttered, but it didn't have any real heat to it.  
Garrett chose to ignore her. They knew the safe was supposed to be in the basement, but they had been in every single room down here and there had been no sign of the presence of a safe. What if there was no safe and this whole job was just a setup? The only document to suggest there really was a safe here had been the riddle in the office earlier... Garrett’s eyes narrowed at the realization. If his senses hadn't failed him completely (and they never did), the office had been on the east-side of the house. But this whole basement was on the western-side. They hadn't been under the office. In fact, they hadn't been under a very big part of the house. But the thick, massive brick walls were the foundation of the whole house.  
“There must be another cellar,” he whispered eventually.  
Lyn looked at him blankly for a couple of seconds. “What exactly are you trying to say?”  
“This basement, it's not as big as the first floor. But the basement walls are the foundation of the whole house.”  
The woman seemed to consider this. “So, there's like a secret basement somewhere?”  
Garrett nodded.   
He climbed back in the ventilation shaft, closely followed by the other thief.   
Back in the office where they had first started out, he took another look at the documents but still couldn't find anything helpful.  
“Think there's a library somewhere around here?” Lyn asked suddenly. “Might be a hidden door.”  
“I do think I saw one earlier."   
Lyn left the office quietly and crept her way down the hallway, swiftly snuffing out all candles along the way. The hallways seemed strangely deserted, considering the fact that the queens diamonds were somewhere in the building.   
This night was getting stranger by the second. He hadn't even found anything worth stealing yet. Well, that wasn't quite true - he had snatched a couple of fancy pens and an ivory comb with a golden handle. But nothing really worth the risk of coming here. Surprisingly, the only thing that had been going well so far was working with Lyn. She was quiet and efficient, if you ignored the head-first drop from the air vent. Other than that, he didn't really mind working alongside the woman. Then again, they hadn't really encountered any trouble yet either. Garrett had a feeling that that was about to change when he spotted the two guards positioned in front of a massive wooden double-door. Lyn slipped through a nearby open door into a dark room and Garrett followed her.   
"We need to lure one of them away from that door," Lyn whispered.   
Garrett nodded.   
"One of them might come down the hallway if we get rid of the rest of the candles, but what about the other one?"  
They couldn't risk causing disturbances, not knowing what was behind those doors. Or, more importantly - who was behind them. Maybe if they'd be lucky, both guards would leave their post to check on any disturbances they'd create. But they couldn't rely on luck. 

Carefully searching the rooms surrounding the library revealed that the heavy wooden doors really were the only way in, but there were two hallways crossing in front of the doors, which they could make work to their own advantage. Garrett had stayed in a small storage room just opposite of the guards. The room had two doors so he had been able to access it without the guards noticing, and if anything went wrong, it provided him with two ways of getting out. He was just waiting for Lyn to return to the hallway they had first come from. She was going to snuff out all the candles there and hopefully one of the guards would go that way to see what was going on. Then he'd deal with the remaining guard.   
Patiently watching the two men through the keyhole, he was waiting for one of them to leave. Soon enough, one of the guards shouted "Hey, who's down there?"  
When no reply came the two men exchanged a quick glance. "Maybe it's just the damn draft blowing them out. Go check before we get in trouble."  
One of the guards disappeared down the hallway towards Lyn and Garrett quickly opened the door in front of him, barging out of the small room. The guard left behind stared at him in shock for a second before attempting to say something. But Garrett knocked him out with his blackjack and dragged the man’s unconscious body into the storage room. Then he stepped back out in the hallway and turned off the electric light illuminating the door. As he peeked through the keyhole, Lyn showed up next to him.   
The library was brightly lit but empty. The door turned out to be locked, but he was able to unlock it within seconds. Lyn took care of the light while Garrett started looking for an entrance to a secret room. "Something must be here," he thought to himself. "Or those guards wouldn't have been there."   
Suddenly he spotted a shelf that was full of large, old books. One of the books was a lot smaller though and looked newer, too. Double-checking for any traps, he pulled the book out and two of the shelves slid to the sides, revealing a large wooden panel with some sort of puzzle on it. Lyn walked up next to him and studied the panel. Garrett watched as she reached out to let her gloved fingertips travel across the puzzle, following the metal pieces embedded in the dark wood. Then she frowned, pushing her finger against one of the pieces. It turned with a soft clicking sound.   
Her gaze flicked from left to right, her brain clearly trying to make sense of the puzzle.   
"It's the Northcrest family symbol," she said then and started pushing the puzzle pieces. Soon enough the panel really started to look like the Northcrest symbol and when the last part was in place, the whole puzzle seemed to slightly sink in the wood behind it before it split into two pieces along with the wooden screen, forming two doors that revealed a brightly lit staircase behind it. There were three torches on each side of the staircase and he didn't have enough water arrows to put them all out. They'd just have to put up with the light.   
Garrett made his way down the stairs, keeping an eye out for any hidden traps. Lyn was right behind him.   
When he reached the bottom of the steps, there was a crunching noise and the wooden panels closed again. He looked over at Lyn and caught her worried glance. They might get in trouble if this was the only way out... No, he told himself. There was another way out. There always was.   
The sudden sound of footfalls stopped his thoughts abruptly. Someone was coming, but the echo of the cellar made it hard to point out which direction they were coming from. Having no time to think, he simply slipped in the darkest one of the hallways, closely followed by Lyn.   
They were lucky and the footsteps didn't come their way. 

Lyn allowed herself to take a deep breath. She didn't like feeling like she was trapped down here. Shaking off the thought she started creeping down the narrow hallway. The guard from earlier had been right - it really was cold down here. Suppressing a shiver she carefully stepped over a tripwire.   
Then she heard the soft chatter of guards. Following the hallway around the corner, she saw the brightly illuminated metal door - and the two men positioned in front of it. The light was electrical but she couldn't spot the switch. Trying to knock them out with the light on wasn't an option - they both had crossbows and swords and neither she nor Garrett would ever be able to get close enough to even get a chance at knocking them out. But there had to be a switch somewhere. She turned around to look at the other thief behind her and when she caught his gaze, he simply nodded. He moved down the hallway they hadn't been to yet and Lyn moved back the same way they had come. It was dark, so dark she could only barely make out the outlines of the wall and the soft glimmer of the tripwire. Frowning she had to admit to herself she probably wouldn't be able to see the switch if it was here so she carefully let her fingertips glide along the wall. The bricks were rough and she could feel how cold they were through her gloves. Suddenly one of the bricks seemed to be a lot smoother than the rest and it seemed to move slightly when she moved her fingertips along it. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she slightly pushed against the brick. She had already figured out it probably wasn’t the light switch, but it was bound to do something. The wall in front of her began to part ever so slowly.   
"What the hell..." she muttered to herself.  
The gap revealed a small set of stairs leading into pitch black nothingness.  
Hesitantly she made the first step down, then stopped. For a brief moment she wondered if she should go back to get Garrett, or at least wait for him. Then she shrugged. He’d either work out where she went and come after her, or she’d just go down there by herself.   
When Lyn reached the end of the stairs, she almost expected the pathway behind her to close like the secret passage in the library had. But it stayed open.   
Yet Lyn still had to stop – it was too dark down here for her to see. She could be walking right into a massive hole and she wouldn’t know. Sighing she turned back. But her sense of balance seemed to be slightly off in the dark and she stumbled. She flung her arms out to steady herself and touched the wall. There was an odd static noise and several lights flickered on in front her. Only now she was able to see that she was in a big room… with a massive safe in it. The woman smiled to herself. Then she carefully moved towards the safe, checking for traps. Surprisingly, there were none.   
“Opening that safe without me?”   
Lyn almost jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She turned around to look at Garrett.   
“Well, you weren’t here.”  
“I am now,” he said, raising an eyebrow.  
Lyn turned back towards the safe. “Alright, let’s do this.”  
The woman entered the code and the door clicked. She tried to pull the door open but it was too heavy. Just like Basso had predicted. Garrett had to help her and though neither one of them was ever going to admit it, it was still difficult. When they had finally managed to fully open the door, they stepped inside. Only to find the safe empty.


	3. Chapter 3

"What the…"   
Garrett hissed the words under his breath.  
Lyn slowly spun around herself, studying the walls of the safe, trying to make sure they hadn't missed anything.   
It was empty. Completely and utterly empty.   
No diamonds. No plans for the watch's great safe. Absolutely nothing.  
When she turned around to look at Garrett, he was already glaring at her, arms crossed in front of his chest.  
"What?"  
"You set me up."  
Lyn laughed soundlessly before shaking her head.   
"That's ridiculous. Why go through all this just to set you up?"  
The man said nothing, just kept glaring at her. Her skin started to prickle at the base of her skull, a nervous shiver making its way across her body. She had to get out of here. One way or another, this whole job had been going badly. One of the most wanted men in the city was accusing her of trying to fuck him over. Oh, and she happened to be more or less trapped in a dark cellar. This wasn't going to end well if she didn't move fast. Get out of here. Get back home.  
But no, she couldn't go home. He knew where she lived. It had been a mistake to let him follow her. All Lyn had been trying to do was prove that he was caught in his distrust. Instead, she had given away her best kept secret. She couldn't go home. She couldn't go see Basso - after all, he might have been the one who set her up.  
In a sudden jolt of panic she turned around and ran for the stairs. But two strong hands grabbed her and pushed her against the wall, the back of her head slamming into the bricks with a dull thud.   
"You're not going anywhere," Garrett hissed but Lyn barely heard him.  
She was in another dark cellar, trapped against another wall, someone else's hand wrapped around her throat. Her heart was pumping like crazy, her lungs desperately struggling for breath. But no matter how much air she inhaled, it didn't seem to reach her lungs and her vision was already starting to fade.

"Lyn?"  
Garrett frowned. He wasn't good at reading other people's expressions and all that stuff, but this was too obvious for even him to miss. Lyn seemed terrified; her ragged breaths making her whole body shake. He could feel her pulse racing under his fingers. He hadn't meant to cause anything like this, but the second she had started running he had been so sure that she had indeed set him up and he wasn't about to let her run off. But when he had shoved her against the wall she had seemed so full of terror that he wasn't sure anymore. She didn't react to him saying her name either, didn't even seem to be aware that he was there. He let go off her and she stumbled forwards.   
Garrett found himself catching her and righting her a little. Her eyes seemed unfocused, her pupils large. Then she looked down at her feet and took a deep, shaky breath.   
"You alright?"   
His hands were still on her waist and shoulder to keep her up but now she shook him off.   
“I’m fine.” She didn’t sound it.  
Surprisingly, Garrett felt bad. He had been mad, convinced that she had set him up. But he had already embarrassed himself with his distrust the other day, so he decided he wouldn’t let it happen again.  
"Let's get out of here," Lyn said, making her way up the stairs.   
"Wait."  
She turned around, defensively crossing her arms in front of her.   
"That other hallway just leads back to the guards. There are no switches there. I don't know how we're gonna get out of here."  
Her eyes narrowed. There had to be a way out. There always was. After all, there were guards down here too... She had almost forgotten about them. Why would they be guarding an empty room? As a distraction, making anyone coming down here think the safe was behind the door they guarded? It would make sense, but something told her it wasn't right. Arms still crossed over her chest, her left hand was tapping a rapid beat against her rip cage as her thoughts raced, going through every possible scenario.   
The secret passage behind the bookshelf had automatically closed behind them. There didn't seem to be any switches down here, but that didn't mean they were trapped for all eternity. There were guards down here and the conversation they had overheard earlier left no reason to doubt the fact that it was possible to get out of here. But how?   
It only seemed possible to open the passage from the library, which meant that every shift change, the guards upstairs would open it, wait for the guards down here to walk out before coming down here. But the mechanism was triggered by weight on the bottom stairs. So the guards would have to be waiting at the top of the stairs for someone to open the passage.  
But, what were they guarding down here? An empty room? Possibly. A way out? Maybe. Actually no, that would be stupid. Anyone could come in then, take those two guards out and get to the safe. Well, the empty safe. But, who knew about that? The Queens diamonds were definitely in the city, everyone knew that much. Their location was secret though, so they might have never been in this house to begin with. And where had the third guard gone, the one that had come down the hallway when they first made their way down the secret passage?   
The secret door opened and closed almost soundlessly, he may have gotten out without either one of the thieves ever hearing it.  
Lyn suppressed a smile when a plan formed in her head. 

Garrett silently watched the woman stare at the dusty ground. She was biting her bottom lip and seemed to be in deep thought. When she looked back up at him a minute later, her eyes were bright and focused.   
"We're getting out of here when they're changing shifts. One goes out, one comes in. I get the one on his way out, you get the one left behind. We meet at the staircase, wait for it to open and get the guard coming in."  
"No," Garrett shook his head. "You get the one left behind." He was going to be the one to get to that staircase first. He'd make it out if it opened earlier than expected. Also he felt better not exactly following her plan, just in case she was trying to get him caught.   
Lyn scowled and looked like she was going to argue with him, then shrugged. "Fine, whatever." 

Getting out of the basement went exactly according to plan. Lyn had even had the chance to take a quick look at what was behind the guarded doors - an empty room.  
Now they were making their way upstairs to the same window they had come in.  
It just all seemed too easy. Then again the house had been pretty much empty, so it didn't really matter.  
Suppressing a sigh Lyn decided to do some research on the issue.   
The two thieves made their way out of the building soundlessly and distracted the guards outside by throwing a glass bottle against the side of a nearby house where it smashed. Then they climbed back on the roof they had been on to scout.   
"What now?" Garrett asked, watching her carefully.   
"We let Basso know the place was empty."   
"Let's go, then."   
Lyn bit her bottom lip. This wasn't what she wanted to happen. She didn't mean tell Basso right now. Maybe the next day, or send him a message.   
"Got somewhere else you need to be?"  
There was no right answer to that and Lyn shuffled uncomfortably.   
"Actually, yes."  
Garrett’s eyes narrowed as he glared at her. He wasn't anyone Lyn wanted to have against her, so she decided she'd try being honest.  
"There's someone I need to see about this." No reaction. "Look, someone's clearly been messing with us. I know a fence in Dayport, he might know something about this."  
"I'm coming."  
Lyn raised her eyebrows skeptically.   
"Not worried this might be a trap?"   
"I've heard about that fence in Dayport. I know where he is. Go the wrong way and you'll find yourself in trouble."  
Shaking her head, Lyn turned around and headed for Dayport. She wondered exactly how much the other thief had really heard of Elijah, the fence. Yes, he had quite the reputation in the more or less criminal underworld of the city. And yes there were quite a few rumors about his appearance and temper as well, but most believed them to be over exaggerated. Lyn had known the man for long enough to know that they were in fact under exaggerated. The man was shrill, loud and had a very strong sense of style.  
But, she'd just have to see how this would go. They had reached Elijah's hideout faster than she had hoped. Officially, the man ran a very fancy business selling the city’s finest materials. But in the back of the house, he dealt with stolen goods. Lyn had known him for years, having helped him out with food a long time before either one of them had made a name for themselves.   
She considered Elijah a friend - he kept her the best jobs and she never failed him.   
The fence was also the one who knew where the watches new great safe was hidden, and he had given her the information on how to find the blueprints.   
There was always a certain level of distrust between thieves and fences, so he hadn't told her where the safe was located just yet. Her chances of finding out hadn't exactly increased by not finding the documents, either.

The two thieves entered the hideout through a small window at the back of the building. Lit by only a few candles the room was dark, leaving enough shadows for both of them to sulk in.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so as you may have noticed the last chapter was shorter than the first two - I'm trying to update every week, but I am still writing this story and I've realized I can't handle writing a 3000-4000 word chapter every week (which is why it took me so long to update, I got stressed out) so I've decided to write shorter chapters! I try to update every Friday (which is Thursday for a lot of you because I live in a lame time zone). That being said, I will be away for a few days next week but I'm hoping to have the next chapter finished before I go (it's about 80% done already). Also I'm sorry if some things in this chapter don't make any sense or some words just aren't English (not my first language). I've been really tired and confused all week haha but I will go back and fix things once I get around to! Anyway, I'm gonna shut up now.

They didn't have to wait very long for Elijah to show up. He walked in through the door on the other side of the room, softly singing what was probably some sort of sailor’s song - or at least that's what Garrett thought. He doubted he had ever heard that many obscenities in one song before and he scowled when the man came to a part of the song describing quite closely what the sailor’s wife looked like under her skirts.   
"Really, Elijah? That's disgusting," Lyn said, stepping out of the shadows.   
The fence jumped and let out a little shriek. "For fucks sake, how many times have I told you not to do that?"  
There was a long moment of silence.   
Eventually Elijah just shook his head. "Forget it. You're still in one piece, so I'm guessing you got that diamond job done?"  
Lyn took a deep breath and slightly turned towards Garrett, who was still hidden in the shadows.  
"About that..."  
He slowly stepped forward just enough for the fence to see him. The man’s eyes widened, then he started laughing. "Is that him? Hell, never thought that'd happen."  
Garrett crossed his arms in front of his chest and said nothing, simply because there was nothing to say. He didn't even really know why they were here.  
"You're really small, you know that?" The fence grinned, his perfectly white teeth reflecting the candlelight.   
"Elijah, the job," Lyn reminded him.  
He sighed. "You're way too serious. Fine. I assume you found the blueprints and the diamonds? So, what are you both doing here? Screwing old Basso over?"  
"Blueprints?" Garrett raised an eyebrow at Lyn.  
"Not now," she muttered. "Look, Elijah... You might want to sit down for this." 

The man frowned, but dropped down on a chair anyway.   
"Alright, so we went to that house. There was nothing of value there. Nothing. We got to the basement, opened the safe... It was empty."  
Elijah's relaxed expression turned into one of surprise. "What do you mean 'empty'? No diamonds, no prints?"  
"What exactly does the word empty mean to you?" Lyn snapped back.  
"Are you sure you didn't miss anything?" He grinned at the woman, eyes sparkling.  
"How stupid do you think I am? I've been doing this for years. I don't 'miss' things. It was empty. Something's not right."  
"Alright, my bad. Have you talked to Basso yet?" He seemed far more serious now and Garrett wondered what exactly the man had to do with all this.  
"He was the one to set us up, why go back?"  
"Basso? You don't really believe that, do you? He couldn't afford to lose you; you're his best business... Both of you. He wouldn't set you up. Never."  
"So what do you think happened?"  
Elijah watched Garrett for a long moment after he spoke.   
"This city admires you, but it also fears you. You have more enemies than anyone could count. None of this should surprise you."  
Lyn sighed and shifted. "I think it's time I told you the truth," she said eventually, facing Garrett. "The diamonds were a nice touch and all, but that's not what I did the job for. I'm sure you've heard of that massive safe the watch has been building?"  
Garrett nodded. "Secret location, apparently impossible to crack. That one?"  
"Yes... Well, Elijah knows its location. But he won't tell me until I have the blueprints. They were supposed to be in the same safe as those diamonds. At least that's what Elijah thought. It's why I agreed to this job in the first place. To get to those blueprints, so I'd be able to go crack that stupid safe."  
"You could have told me before we started that job."  
"And have to share the great safe with you? I don't think so." He glared at the woman, but she just smirked.  
"How do we know Elijah hasn't been lying?"   
"I'm still here," the man protested, but the two thieves ignored him.   
"I've known him for ages," Lyn said thoughtfully, "I trust him."  
Garrett studied the other man. His voice was a little too shrill, too loud for Garrett's liking. And while Garrett was certainly no expert when it came to fashion, he knew the man’s choice of clothes was rather unique. He was clothed in what seemed to be one long piece of colourful fabric from head to toe, a thick golden necklace around his neck, fingers covered in heavy golden rings. His eyes were an odd golden colour, reminding Garrett of a cat - they gleamed with the same intelligence and wit, though the man had been rather tame so far. His dark skin gleamed softly in the flickering light of the candles.   
"Listen, I'm going to talk to some people, see if I can find out what's going on. Come back tomorrow night. Oh, and get here a bit earlier next time? A man needs his sleep."  
"Fine," Lyn said.  
Elijah fixed his gaze on Garrett.   
"Fine," he agreed eventually. 

When Garrett left the clock tower the next night, he quickly realized that something was off. There were twice as many guards as usual and they seemed to be looking for something. Shrugging he started to make his way down, to go see Basso before heading back to Elijah's place. But oddly enough, Basso wasn't in his office and the place seemed even messier than it normally was. For the second time that night Garrett shrugged to himself and went to Dayport. When he arrived Lyn was already there, sitting on top of a crate, picking on a piece of wood that was sticking out.  
"You came," she said, not turning around to look at him. "Did you talk to Basso?"  
"He wasn't there."  
The woman sighed and for a second it seemed like she was going to say something, but at that moment Elijah walked in.   
"You're finally here, good."   
He was carrying a large, rolled up piece of parchment in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. He set both things down on a table in the corner of the room and poured himself a glass of wine. "Want some?" he asked, pointing the glass at the two thieves. Lyn shook her head while Garrett didn't even bother answering.   
"Alright, let's get down to business then. You noticed the guards outside?"   
"They're bloody everywhere tonight," Lyn muttered.   
"Well, word on the street is that the two of you stole the queen’s diamonds. The baron is furious. Sent out all his men to look for the two of you."   
"I'm flattered, but we didn't take them," Garrett said. "Someone must have gotten there before us." The thought actually stung a little - having the diamonds snatched from under his nose didn't go well with his pride.   
"Did anyone see you last night?"  
"Of course not," Lyn scoffed.   
"Then why would they say it was you? No one has any reason to suspect the two of you have ever worked together. So how come they specifically say it were both of you who stole them?"  
Garrett frowned. He didn't like where this was going.   
"What exactly are you trying to say, Elijah?"  
"What I'm trying to say is that someone must have known you would go there that night. Someone must have made sure there would be nothing for you to find. And then that someone must have told the baron that you stole the diamonds. Now the whole watch is looking for you. They've been threatening every fence and every merchant in the whole city. Anyone you talk to is going to rat you out - the watch made sure of that. It would be best if you don't come here anymore for a while either."  
"What's that supposed to mean?"   
"Lyn, darling, you know I would never sell you out. But it's too dangerous for all of us. I'm going to lay low for a while. You need to get those diamonds back."  
"I'm almost certain the definition of thief isn't 'brings lost things back to their owners'." She tried to sound angry, but couldn't quite keep the anxious tone out of her voice.  
Elijah took the parchment of the table and handed it to her.   
"This is the location of the new safe. I'm sorry I can't do more for you. Be careful."  
Lyn watched the man for a minute. She had thought of him as a friend, had sometimes even come here just to talk to him for a while. He'd keep his best leather for her, she'd tell him the city’s newest gossip. And now he told her not to come back?   
"Are you serious?"  
"I'm sorry. Now go, I don't know when the watch will be back here."  
Lyn sighed and left through the back window, Garrett following her.  
He stopped her on a rooftop across the street.   
"Trying to keep that all to yourself?"  
He gestured to the parchment tied to her leather belt.   
"What.... Oh, that." She pulled it from the loop that held it and unrolled it before studying it for a moment. Then she rolled it back up and held it out to Garrett.   
"Here, take it. Enjoy yourself." With that she disappeared into the night. 

Getting back to the clocktower proved to be a bit of a challenge due to all the guards on the streets. There were torches everywhere, making the streets impossibly bright. And for once, the guards didn't seem to be fidgety and distracted, but were actually at high alert. He spotted several archers in unusual spots as well.   
The next couple of days would certainly be interesting.   
When he eventually made it home he changed out of his gear and lit the fire. Then he grabbed an apple and settled down on his bed with the parchment. After studying it for several minutes, he neatly rolled it back up and put it next to his bed. Apparently the safe was in the watch house. Or better; under it. According to the plan, the watch men themselves had dug out a giant hole beneath the house to put the safe into. Judging by the description, it was quite well hidden under the floorboards of the ground floor, the room full of traps and clever mechanisms. But there was no description of the actual safe, so he couldn't be sure on how to open it. He guessed that was on the blueprints Lyn had been looking for. Not that he had ever needed such information before, but this seemed to be different than anything he had ever done.  
Looking out the window, he realized the sky was tinted a soft orange. Garrett yawned and decided it was time to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as you may have noticed, I didn't get around to putting up the new chapter before I went away - but I'm only a day late!   
> Oh and about the thief taker (who is briefly mentioned in this chapter) - it's a mix of the games concept of a "thief-taker general" and the thief takers that were hired in England a loooong time ago (basically, they were private individuals hired by crime victims, kinda like bounty hunters. they were often corrupt themselves though, so not really the most trustworthy people). And since this is a few years before the game, he's not the same guy as the thief-taker in the game.

That night he went to see Basso again. It was a very short visit though - the man basically ushered him straight back out, saying it was too dangerous for him to be there.   
Garrett knew the fence was right and decided to head to the watch house instead, just to have a look at the safe. He'd be able to work out how to open it then. Getting there was challenging, but of course he managed without being seen. There were very few watchmen in the watch house, presumably because they all were on the streets. He quickly found the door to the room. It was locked, but when had that ever been a problem?   
A few minutes later he had to admit that this time it was in fact a problem. He couldn't get the damn lock open, couldn't even get it to move a little bit. Getting more frustrated by the second, he eventually heard footsteps coming his way and decided it would be best to leave for the night. The last few days had been weird and confusing - he probably just needed some peace and quiet, the lock wouldn’t be a problem anymore then.  
Garrett came back the next night, trying once more to open the door. After almost half an hour he finally resigned. He couldn't open the lock. But there had to be a key somewhere, so he searched the house top to bottom. Still he found no key. When had the watch become this smart? True, they had been doing a lot better recently, under the guidance of the new watch captains and the new thief taker, but he had never expected this.  
If he couldn't open the lock, no one else could. Well, he had heard rumors. Rumors that there was one other thief who was better with locks than he was. But there was no way he would work with her again.   
On the other hand he clearly wasn't able to open that lock. If Lyn managed to open it, he wouldn't be able to get to that safe. So maybe he should work with her, just one more time, just to get to that safe?   
That was if she'd even work with him again. Well, there was no harm in trying.

When he got to her hideout, she wasn't there.   
"Gives me some time to have a look around," he muttered to himself. The place was a mess and he had to stop himself from tidying. How could anyone live like this?   
He didn't find anything interesting. A bunch of clothes, some gear, food.   
It seemed odd that a thief didn't have any pretty trinkets. Garrett took another look around, and this time he found a wooden box, hidden under a pile of leather. It was filled with gold and silver - rings, necklaces, brooches, armbands... Most of them were remarkable pieces, some even parts of collections. He pulled out a dagger with a silver hilt, decorated with delicate, small rubies. Just when he was about to examine it further, he heard the creaking of a floorboard in front of the door. He jumped to his feet, shut the box and put the leather back on top of it. Then he turned around to face the door. When Lyn came in, she visible tensed for a moment when she saw him.  
"Oh, it's you," she said then and relaxed. "What do you want?"  
"Been to the watch house yet?"  
She frowned and shut the door behind her.   
"No, I had to... do something else first." Garrett didn't quite know how to go about this - he wasn't going to admit that he had been unable to open that damn lock.   
There was a long pause. Eventually Lyn sighed and leaned back against the door. "Just tell me why you're here."  
"We should go there together. There are a lot of guards around and..."  
The woman laughed. "I can tell when you’re lying. What do you really want?"   
Garrett crossed his arms in front of his chest and said nothing. Lyn took a few steps towards him.  
"You can't do it by yourself, so you're asking me to come?"  
He knew this had been a stupid idea. He made for the door. But Lyn was faster. "Look, just tell me what you want."  
Garrett took a deep breath.  
"I went to the watch house so I could have a look at the safe but I... I couldn't get the lock open."  
Lyn tried her hardest not to laugh and she was glad that he couldn't see her face in the half-dark of the room.   
"I guess you're talking about the lock on the door?"   
He nodded.   
"Alright, that's odd. I mean, you're obviously not as good as me but... you're not that bad either. What exactly did the lock look like?"  
Garrett explained the lock as best as he could.  
"We'll go there tomorrow and I'll have a look. Now get out of here."

They met near the watch building the next night. There were still plenty of guards patrolling the streets and they had started searching abandoned buildings during the day. Lyn knew she had to be extra careful, but she wasn't worried yet. They were only guards - even if they caught her, she'd still be able to escape.   
The two thieves entered the watch house together. Garrett had brought the plan and let Lyn take another look at it before they had entered, which was quite fortunate as Lyn had discovered she didn't remember very much of what she had seen on the parchment a few days ago. She had been so angry that night that she had given it away without a second thought. Afterwards, she had cursed herself for letting her bad temper get in the way once again.   
Getting to the locked door again was fairly easy and Lyn dropped down in front of it, studying the lock. Garrett was supposed to watch the hallway, making sure no guards were passing by so she could only focus on opening the lock. Yet she could still feel his eyes on her back.   
She pulled her lock picks out and gently put them inside the lock. As she began moving them around, she thought she felt a slight buzz, a soft vibration in the lock.   
But that made no sense, so she dismissed it as a trick of her mind and went back to picking the lock. No matter how she worked it, the door didn't open, and the pins didn't really seem to be sliding in place. Then she felt the buzz again. She stilled her lock picks. The vibration was still there. Frowning she pulled her lock picks out.   
"So?" Garrett asked.  
"It's an electric lock."   
"What?"  
Suppressing a sigh, she turned around.  
"This lock, it's not connected to the frame in any way. It's not what keeps the door locked. There must be some sort of electrical lock keeping the door closed," she explained.  
Garrett frowned at her skeptically.   
Lyn put one of her lock picks back in the lock and tilted it so the vibration was easy to feel. Then she stepped aside a little, making room for the other thief. When he put his hand on the lock pick, it brushed against her gloved fingers for a second and Lyn almost flinched. He pulled his hand back after a moment.   
Lyn removed the lock pick and slid it through the small space between the door and its frame, where the lock should have gone into the frame. There was nothing there.   
"See?"  
Garrett nodded.   
"There must be a room or something nearby where you can switch off the electricity or unlock the door."  
They searched for the room together and after a few short minutes they found a small, empty room with a single switch on the wall.   
Lyn smirked. "Seems the watch isn't as smart as they like to think."  
Once they had carefully entered the room, Lyn softly shut the door behind them. There were no windows here; the room was completely and utterly dark.  
Lyn was sure there would be an electric light, but it would be too bright, too much light falling from under the door into the dimly lit corridor. She heard a match being struck next to her before she saw the flickering glow of the small flame.  
"Now if only you had brought candles as well," she muttered. There was a soft rustling sound and a candle was lit. She could see Garrett smirk in the soft light. "Fine, you win this one." Lyn tried hard not to roll her eyes at the self-satisfied expression on his face.   
"Come on," he whispered eventually. They had to stay together quite closely because the single candle didn't do very much in the dark room. When they disabled their first trap they actually had to lean over it together to be able to see what they were doing. Disabling the traps took a rather long time - there were a lot, some of them apparently new constructions. But eventually they agreed it was safe to move the floorboards now. Finding the small lever that released the boards from their normal position wasn't too difficult, even in the dark. They pushed the boards aside together, revealing a small but steep staircase, before exchanging a worried glance.   
"This is probably a really bad idea," Lyn said, then made her way down the stairs. Garrett followed her. The staircase led to a small room with concrete walls. The giant safe was the only thing in the room, a massive construction of steel. They had to disable several pressure plates before they could step closer to the safe. There was a strange, rectangular indentation in the metal, odd lines carefully crafted into it. "It's a puzzle," Lyn whispered, “but the pieces are missing. We can't possible open it without them."   
They left the room feeling unsatisfied because they couldn't really do anything. The traps and pressure plates were a lost cause, but they re-locked the electric door, hoping no one was going to enter and notice their intrusion. Then they decided to have a look around, trying to find out where the pieces of the puzzle were. Garrett didn’t remember seeing anything the night before, when he had already searched the house. But then again he had also missed out on the small room that had revealed the switch for the electric door, so he might have failed to notice other things as well. He blamed it on recent events and decided to go back to the clock-tower once they would finish searching the house. Have some food, read a book, go to bed early.  
Garrett was just going through a desk in one of the offices when he heard the sound of footsteps drawing closer. He quickly put the papers back and shut the drawers while Lyn was rearranging the bookshelf she had been going through. The two thieves slipped out of the room just in time - one of the watch captains entered only seconds after they had left. It had been the last room to search, and they hadn't found any information about the puzzle. They left the watch house through one of the windows on the ground floor and made their way up onto a nearby roof.  
The nights were starting to get colder, the last remnants of summer fading quickly. September would end soon, leaving only about a month or so before it would start snowing. Lyn readjusted her scarf, biting her bottom lip. “Where do you think the pieces of that puzzle are?" she asked eventually. There was a long pause and for a moment she thought Garrett had left. "The watch captains probably have some," he said then. Humming thoughtfully, Lyn turned around. "I guess the baron has one as well. Who else? There are six pieces."  
"The baron’s wife?"  
"Possibly, but that would mean two pieces in one house. That's kind of risky. Maybe they've given one to that guy they hired?"  
"Guy?" Garrett asked.  
"Oh, the thief taker... What's his name? Erold or something?"   
The other thief nodded, crossing his arms in front of his chest, presumably to protect himself from the cold. Lyn doubted it helped - the wind had picked up now, sweeping cold air over the rooftops. "Wanna go to the baron’s mansion tomorrow?" There was another nod before the man disappeared into the dark. Lyn sighed and started climbing off the rooftops herself. She would have rather gone to the barons mansion by herself, but it was the only place they assumed to have two pieces. Garrett would never let her go there on her own - she knew because she wouldn't let him go by himself either. Frowning she wondered how she had gotten into all this. After all she had never even wanted to work with anyone else, even less when it came to this stupid safe. Things just seemed to get more complicated by the minute. She shrugged the thought off. There were still a few hours of darkness left and she was determined to put them to good use.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn't update last week... because every time I tried to type 'baron' I ended up typing "barion" instead and I got so mad I had to stop writing :'D but, new chapter this week! If there are any random letters/signs/spaces - please ignore them. Dog decided to jump on the laptop and put her paws on aaaaaaall the buttons (and that is why you shouldn't let the dog on your bed)  
> Also this is now officially the longest story I have ever written and I do sometimes struggle to remember mentioning all the little things I'll need for the rest (but i basically have the whole story planned out so it hopefully won't be too bad).  
> And yay, cliche red-haired oc! it's just a rare hair color (at least in the real world haha) and I'll need it for a future element of the story.

The next night was even colder, the wind howling in the streets. Lyn was rather reluctant to leave her place by the fire and glanced over at her bed more than once while getting ready. She reminded herself that the thieving season would be over soon enough and she’d be left with nothing to do for months. Still, she didn’t feel like going to the baron’s mansion; she was tired and cold and her arms hurt from the night before. Sighing she left her hideout behind and made her way through the dark city.  
She met up with Garrett near the baron’s mansion and they made their way inside quietly. While the mansion was, of course, guarded far better than the common houses, it was still quite easy to get inside. Then again the watch was busy looking for the two thieves that had supposedly stolen the diamonds, so maybe they didn’t deploy as many men to the baron’s mansion as they normally would.  
They searched the building and filled their pockets with valuable things - after all Northcrest had enough of those. Eventually they made it to the study. Lyn smiled to herself because nobles were stupid and this tended to be the one room they hid their safes in. And sure enough they found the baron’s safe hidden behind a rather disturbing painting of a bunny with a human body wearing a dress. The paintings made by the Court of Montonessi had been all the rage amongst the rich people lately, but Lyn just found them creepy.  
The safe revealed two pieces of the puzzle and Lyn almost sighed in disappointment. The watch was trying so hard, yet this was still so easy. She had expected the baron to at least put them in different spots but no, he had hidden them together. Ridiculous.  
When they left the baron’s mansion, the moon was fully hidden behind the clouds, the only light provided by the torches of the patrolling watchmen.  
“I’m gonna go see Basso,” Lyn announced.  
“What for?”  
“Maybe I can get something out of him.”  
She was half expecting the other thief to tell her there was no point, he had tried already. But he didn’t say anything, just followed her as she started making her way to Basso’s small office. 

When they arrived, the man was sitting at his desk, sorting papers.  
They watched from the shadows for a while until Basso dropped a paper and had to bend over to retrieve it, sighing heavily.  
“Getting old?” Lyn asked, stepping out of the deep shadows in the back of the room.  
Basso shot up and hit his head on the underside of the desk.  
“Fucks sake,” he muttered as he eventually managed to sit back up, rubbing the back of his head. “You’re gonna scare me to death one day.”  
“Good,” Lyn replied.  
Basso shook his head and laughed, but it didn’t last long.  
“You shouldn’t be here.”  
“I just want to know who gave you the diamond job.”  
“Can’t tell you.”  
“Listen,” Lyn growled, “the whole damn watch is after us, they’re looking for us everywhere, because of that damn job. We didn’t even steal those bloody diamonds.”  
“I can’t tell you because I don’t know.” Basso sighed inwardly. Garrett had asked him this already, but he had to admit that Lyn was a lot scarier than him. He knew the woman was unpredictable when she lost her temper, and he’d rather not experience that tonight.  
Lyn crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him. A few steps behind her, Garrett was unknowingly mirroring the action.  
“Fine.” This time, Basso sighed out loud. “There was a courier and…”  
“A courier? You sent us out on that job because of a courier?”  
“Let me finish. He said he had been sent by an important man, he had all the information. Said it’d be difficult and to send out my best thieves. It sounded too good to miss out on.” Basso knew his arguments were fairly weak, but at the time they had seemed much more valid. But now he had to admit that maybe it had been a mistake to not meet his client in person.  
Lyn just shook her head and for a second he thought he saw something like disappointment flash across her face. Then she left. Garrett followed her like a shadow and Basso frowned. It seemed to be awfully out of character, especially considering how much they had seemed to dislike each other at first. Maybe Basso had been right from the start and maybe they did get along once they had stopped being so hostile to one another. 

 

Lyn stopped just outside of Basso’s office and took a deep breath. Then she frowned up at the sky. It was pouring down rain already, the wind whipping it against the wall next to them. Garrett could hear the distant rumbling of thunder and he was convinced he could see lightning in the distance as well. He knew Lyn would never make it home before the thunderstorm hit the city. But that wasn't his problem - after all she had wanted to come here. She should have known the weather was going to change. It had been windy all day, the promise of a storm lingering in the air. So why did he feel responsible for it? There was nowhere for her to go... but he didn't want to invite her to stay with him either. Only two people knew he was living in the clock-tower, and he didn't exactly plan on expanding that list. But she had to stay somewhere, it would be too dangerous for her to try and go home. 'Still not your problem,' he reminded himself. Yet he couldn't quite bring himself to not care.  
"I better get going before the weather gets even worse," Lyn mumbled.  
"Wait," Garret said, his mouth making the decision for him. "It's too dangerous, you'll never make it before the storm hits."  
The woman shrugged. "Well I have to go somewhere."  
"Just follow me," he muttered, feeling his face starting to burn. He didn't normally invite people and for some reason he felt ridiculously stupid doing it, as he realized now. Lyn shot him an odd look but said nothing. Climbing up the clock-tower was almost difficult with the wind pulling on them in the heavy rain, and Garrett was glad when they made it inside. They both awkwardly stood next to the window, neither one of them quite knowing what to do. Then Garrett headed down the stairs, trying to escape the uncomfortable situation. Lyn followed him.  
"Nice tower, Rapunzel,” she said with a smirk.  
He crossed his arms in front of his chest and raised an eyebrow. “Rapunzel?”  
“Oh you know - pretty, long hair, sitting up in her tower waiting for her prince to come save her.”  
“Also fictional,” he added drily.  
Lyn shrugged. “So, are you sitting up here waiting for your prince too?” she asked then.  
“Sure.”  
She smiled brightly and their eyes met for a second.  
When he felt his face starting to get weirdly hot, he quickly turned around and busied himself taking his harness off.  
When the last of the buckles came undone, he put it down on a crate. Lyn was still watching him when he turned around, playing with a coin in her hands. It was awfully silent now, neither one of them quite knowing what to say. Garrett headed upstairs to get rid of the rest of his armour. He changed into a black pair of cotton pants and a shirt, put his outfit up to dry and headed back down. He found the other thief standing in front of one of his display cases. One of her still gloved fingers gently travelled down the glass. “Mercury's rage?” she asked then, still looking at the case.  
“Yes.”  
Mercury's rage were his favourite collectables. The myth said that a man named Mercury had discovered a planet far, far away. No one believed him. They all called him crazy. He never cared about any of it, too fascinated by his discovery. But one day his wife had him locked up, for he was rich and she had only married him for his money. Mercury was so angry by this that he swore to never get close to anyone again. And from now on, whenever he touched anyone, their eyes turned into purple gems, the colour of the planet the man had discovered, to remind Mercury of his vow.  
Lyn was still studying the stones, set in two delicate silver necklaces and a small bracelet.  
“I don't think I've ever seen any of them before,” she whispered. “They're beautiful.”  
He turned around slightly to look at her. With her back to the fire, it was hard to make out her face, but Garrett imagined she was biting her bottom lip, again.  
“You should really be careful,” she said suddenly. “You might get robbed. I heard there's this thief going around - best of her kind. She might come steal them off you one day.”  
He lightly shook his head at the statement.  
“I should get out of those clothes before they completely dry on me,” Lyn said and turned around. Carefully she undid her harness and dropped it on the ground next to her. Then she stopped and looked back up at him.  
“Can I borrow something to wear?”  
Garrett looked around for a shirt and when he found it, he eventually handed it to her.  
Then he headed back upstairs. After a few minutes he heard Lyn’s soft footsteps on the stairs. She put her clothes up to dry as well and then crossed her arms in front of her chest. The shirt he had given her was like a short dress on her and Garrett took a moment to study her. Her legs were pale and thin, but muscular. She looked a lot smaller and more fragile with her armour off. Her most prominent feature was her bright red, almost orange hair. It fell over her shoulder in a thick braid. When she caught Garrett watching her she frowned. “What?”  
He looked away and said nothing. Lyn shuffled uncomfortably and looked out of the window. It was still pouring down rain and the wind had picked up, gusts tearing on the roofs of the houses.  
Eventually Garrett decided to go back downstairs to escape the awkward situation. He hadn’t quite thought this through when he had invited her here. Where was she going to sleep? He only had this one bed and he really didn’t want to sleep on the floor, but he couldn’t make her sleep on the floor either. He decided to just get in bed and see what the woman would do. After a while he heard her walk down the stairs. Without looking at him, she dropped down on the other side of the bed. He only had one sheet so they had to share and he could feel her body heat radiating off of her. Garrett leaned against the headboard of his bed and fidgeted with a loose piece of string on the sheet. From the corner of his eye he watched Lyn undo the soft leather band that held her braid together at the bottom, then weave her fingers through it to undo the braid. Her hair reached just past her shoulder blades and Garrett couldn't help but to think it was a risk - it was too long and could easily get stuck. His train of thought was interrupted abruptly when a gust of wind tore the roof tiles off a nearby house.  
“That's quite the storm,” Lyn mumbled and started braiding her hair again.  
“Always sounds worse up here than it actually is.”  
She frowned and wrapped the leather band around the bottom of her braid again. Then she pulled her knees up under her chin.  
They were quiet for a long time and Garrett debated whether he should just go to sleep or if he should say something and if so – what should he say? He had never been good with words and he really couldn’t think of anything.  
Eventually it was Lyn who broke the silence again.  
“Thanks for letting me stay here.”  
She said it so softly that at first Garrett wasn’t sure if she had actually said it or if he was just making it up. He just grunted in return.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you said you'd be on hiatus until November... and next minute it's May and you still haven't posted anything. My only excuse is that you wouldn't believe how busy my life has been these last couple of months. But I'm trying to actually update this again, so bear with me

When Lyn woke up, she was confused about her whereabouts for a couple of seconds before she remembered the previous night’s events. It was all she could do to stop herself from cringing at the memories. She slipped out of bed, trying her hardest to ignore the sleeping form next to her. A quick look out of the window revealed that night was just about to fall. The thief got dressed hurriedly, grimacing when her woolen vest turned out to still be damp. But she slipped it on anyway, ignoring the way the cold fibers against her skin made her shiver. Then she neatly folded the shirt she had borrowed the night before and put it on top of a chest. 

The air outside was cool and clear, the moon and stars already visible against the darkening sky. Clouded skies were better for thieving, but she had always loved admiring the stars so she took a moment to look up. Making her way across the rooftops Lyn was just thinking that it was a rather beautiful night when she noticed the smell of blood and death drifting up from the streets below her.  
Looking down at the marketplace she spotted two wooden gallows that weren't normally there. They were lit up by torches, two corpses swaying in the soft breeze. Lyn recognized one of them even from up on the rooftop - he was a young fence, barely older than her. He had started out as a thief, but not a particularly good one. Fencing seemed to have a suited his skill set a lot better. Lyn had met him a couple of times. He was almost as short as her, which was a rarity, and just as skinny. His bald head seemed to gleam slightly in the flickering light of the torches. There was blood lazily dripping from his right arm where his hand used to be. Said hand was pinned to one of the posts of the gallows, blood staining the wood. It seemed a special kind of cruelty to cut someone's hand off before hanging them and Lyn had no doubt both acts had been performed in front of hundreds of hungry eyes. The people loved a good execution, and she supposed the city watch had made quite a show out of this one. She refused to consider the possibility that the young fence had been mutilated and hanged just for knowing her. 

She made it back home easily, first stripping her leather Armour off before removing the damp vest underneath it. Lyn thought she ought to go back out and steal something, but she seemed to lack motivation. She felt tired and oddly worn out so instead, she pulled a thin cotton tunic over her head, lit the fire and dropped down onto her bed.   
Settling down she reached for the novel she had started just the other day.   
The woman spent hours reading, but must have dozed off at some point. When she woke up again, the sun was high up in the sky.   
She cursed herself and rolled out of bed. Messing up her sleeping schedule was the last thing she needed.  
The fire had gone out at some point, leaving the room freezing cold despite the sunshine outside.   
Lyn reached for a thick woolen jacket and slipped it on over her tunic. Then she decided to do all the boring things she normally avoided, like washing and cleaning. It felt like hours of pointless work. Eventually she sat down and oiled her armor and gear. The leather felt dry despite having soaked it in oil the day before. She would have to make herself a new outfit soon, but good leather was hard to come by these days, even though Elijah always kept his eye out for her. Or maybe she was just too picky. It would certainly be easier if she was willing to use any of the leather coming in from the Bearings farm just out of town. But she refused to have anything to do with them ever again, even if it was just using their produce. Her hand went to the scar on her left arm automatically, just like it always did at the mention of the name. It felt rippled and bumpy under her fingers and didn't look much better. She had run away so many years ago, yet anything to do with the Bearings still made her feel uneasy. They would never have any power over her again, but the feeling still wouldn't leave. They had told her time and time again that she should be grateful for being accepted into their family, after her parents clearly hadn't wanted her. It didn't make the abuse any easier to take. 

When she was little she had always wondered who her real parents were. Every time Bearing locked her up in the dark cellar she would make up stories about her parents and how they would come to her rescue someday. In her mind her mother was a beautiful, elegant lady with brown hair and a gentle smile. Her father was a tall man with blonde hair who knew how to fight and would punch Bearing in the face. The thought still made her grin and she was proud of little her for coming up with it. But in reality, no one had come to her rescue. And as she grew older, she realized that her family would have kept her, had they really wanted her. There was always a way.   
Eventually she ran away from the farm, straight to the city where she met Elijah. Lyn sighed at the thought. She missed the man more than she wanted to admit. He was her only friend, the only person she really trusted. And he had sent her away. Admittedly, he just tried to protect himself and her but it stung nonetheless. They had known each other for so long, had built their careers on one another. And now she couldn't go see him, not even to have him distract her from the chaos she had gotten herself into.   
Shrugging the annoying thoughts off she set her gear aside. Then Lyn sorted through her recent loot, deciding what she wanted to keep and what she was going to sell. Not like she was able to sell anything at the moment. Any fence would rat her out to the watch, even though this time she really hadn't done anything. If she could have at least gotten her hands on those diamond... They had come all the way from Aisyra in the south, just to be snatched from her like that. Lyn found herself wondering what was going to happen to the baron - the queen had trusted him to look after the precious stones while her men were resting in the city. And now they were gone. Would she send some of her own forces to try and find the diamonds? Was Northcrest going to be punished for his failure? Would this start a war?  
But who had taken the diamonds? And who was trying to frame her? She had originally thought it was someone inside the watch, or maybe even the baron himself. But was risking a war really worth capturing a thief? She didn't think so. 

This was starting to do her head in. Lyn knew she was making a mistake when she put her gear on and set out to go meet Elijah. It was too dangerous, putting both Elijah and her at risk. But she couldn't help herself.   
The thief spent some time sitting on a roof across from Elijah's shop, watching the guards pass by. They had probably been told not to fall into a routine but this was the watch and they weren't that smart. Two guards spent some time patrolling the area around Elijah’s house. But they left eventually and Lyn climbed off the roof and slipped into a window that Elijah always left open for her.  
The rich materials in his shop window looked as neat and nicely arranged as ever, but the back room, where he dealt with stolen goods, was a mess.   
Lyn ignored the state of the place and sat in her usual spot, waiting for Elijah to enter the room.   
The man showed up soon enough and gasped audibly.   
“What the hell are you doing here?”  
Lyn shrugged. “Didn’t have anything else to do.”  
“Well if you’re so bored, why don’t you go get those damn diamonds back so the watch can stop tripping over themselves and ruining my business in the process.”  
“I’m not going to bring them back once I’ve found them.”  
Elijah laughed. “So you are looking for them?”  
The thief nodded.  
“Yet you’re still bored. Go have some fun with your newfound friend. Maybe that’ll cheer you up.”  
“What are you talking about?” She looked up at Elijah, who in turn grinned at her.  
“Oh come on, you know what I mean.”  
“Not interested.”  
“How could you not be interested after hearing him talk? Damn. You should bring him back here. I’d like to hear him… talk some more.”  
Lyn shook her head at the man. “You’re incorrigible.”  
“Don’t act like you don’t care about these things. I know you do!”  
“That was once, Elijah. And you asked me to.”  
“It was four times and you agreed.”  
“Didn’t know you were keeping count.”  
Elijah winked at her and Lyn bit back a laugh.   
They both turned serious again when they heard yelling.  
The fence turned to take a look outside. Several men were patrolling the area outside his house again.  
“You should probably go,’ Elijah said. But the thief had already disappeared.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the possibly awkward formatting - I'm uploading this on mobile haha, which also explains any typos. Just wanted to actually upload this before I forget again - will be fixing everything tomorrow!

Garrett picked up the small piece of parchment for what felt like the hundredth time. He had found it on his windowsill, where Jenivere usually left matchboxes, weighed down by a delicate silver bracelet. But instead of Bassos handwriting, it had revealed an almost unreadable, unfamiliar mess. It had taken him a while to decipher the words. Lyn wanted to meet him the next day because she had some sort of information. He had found it odd that she didn't just write down whatever she knew and placed it on the windowsill as well. Obviously she could write and found leaving a note in his home an acceptable way of communicating. 

The next day he went to meet her just after midnight. When he made it to the top of the roof, she was already there, sitting cross legged on the tiles. He noticed her fingers tapping a rapid rhythm against the clay.  
'You could have just left a letter.'   
'Too much writing. I don't like writing.'   
'Evidently.'  
He dropped into a crouch next to her, careful to keep his distance.   
'See that building over there?'  
'The ugly mansion?'   
They were in one of the richer districts, the mansion across from them a massive, unsymmetrical building surrounded by an equally huge yard complete with statues and water features.   
Lyn nodded. 'It's the thief takers mansion.'   
'The job seems to pay quite well.'   
'Despite him being so bad at it.'  
Garrett looked over at her. 'What's that supposed to mean?'   
'Well he hasn't hung you yet and you really wouldn't be that hard to catch.'  
He shook his head and went back to studying the mansion.   
'Anyway, apparently he's having a new one build. Up on one of the hills. It's a big property. This is nothing compared to it. He's asked for only the best materials.'  
'Surely the job doesn't pay that well.'   
'No, it doesn't.'  
Garrett didn't understand where this was going. 'Rich family?'   
'No. He's not married either.'  
He bit back a sigh. This was almost as bad as talking to the queen of beggars. She never gave him any straight answers either.  
'Do you think the Queen is happy about her diamonds disappearing?'   
'I don't care about the Queen.'   
Lyn stretched next to him and yawned.   
'Maybe you should.'   
Why the hell should he care about the Queen? She probably had some remarkable jewelry he'd love to get his hands on, but her palace was hundreds of kilometers from the city. And since the status of the Queen was only a formality and she no longer held any true political power, she didn't come for visits either. The only power she had left was of a more social nature, something Garrett wasn't concerned about at all.   
'The Queen might not hold any political power anymore,' Lyn echoed his thoughts, 'but her men are loyal to her. They will do anything she asks.'   
There was a long pause. It was uncomfortably cold up on the roof and Garrett wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to stay at least a little warmer. He didn't see why any of this mattered. He had never concerned himself with politics or social status, and he wasn't about to start now. It simply didn't affect him. Even if the Queens men killed the baron, another family would take the Northcrests place. It didn't matter who was running things as long as he could steal from them. 

'What are you trying to say?'   
Lyn sighed. 'The queen will reward whoever brings her diamonds back. And coin has always decided who runs this city.'   
'You think it was an inside job?'   
The whole thing made him feel more and more uneasy by the second. He didn't like having any part in this, no matter how small it might be.  
Garrett looked back over at the thief takers mansion. Why did Lyn want to meet him here? He didn't care if Erold was building a new mansion or if the man was rotting somewhere in the ground. Then the realization hit him.   
'You think Erold took the diamonds?'   
Lyn looked over at him and smirked.  
'I thought you'd never catch up.'   
Garrett thought it through for a moment. The baron was supposed to look after the diamonds, but he had obviously failed to do so. There was only one way this would end - the Queens men were bound to kill him sooner or later. Then the battle for power would begin between the rich houses. Unless the Queen would suggest someone to take the Barons place. Someone who brought her diamonds back - and who captured the thieves that took them. Or at least supposedly took them.  
'I don't care about politics,' he said eventually.  
'That's not the point. Erolds plan won't work until he captures us. He won't stop.'   
'They'll never catch me,' Garrett replied, but he had to admit he didn't sound as confident as he would have liked. Also he rather missed doing actual jobs, which was impossible at the moment. He couldn't trust anyone not to sell him out. The same went for his suppliers. And while the people in the city believed the clocktower was haunted he knew that the thief taker was eventually going to make his men raid it anyway.   
He only had one choice; find the diamonds and let everyone know that it was Erold who took them.


	9. Chapter 9

Crawling through the narrow space Lyn tried her hardest to suppress the cough building in her chest. There was dust everywhere, little fluffy balls sticking to the walls of the vent and now also to herself. At this rate she would be caught once she dropped out of the vent because of the dusty trail she'd leave behind. If she didn't choke trying not to cough first. Even her mask couldn't stop the tiny particles from making it through her airways to her lungs.  
'If you're this rich the least you could do is have your air vents cleaned,' Lyn grumbled to herself. How she had ended up having to search Erolds house remained a mystery to her. The woman had been so sure that Garrett would be the one searching this place for Erolds piece of the puzzle. After all the man was fairly important and sure to have one of the pieces and she had expected the other thief to not want to miss out on the opportunity. Yet she had gotten stuck with the task. It wasn't that she couldn't handle it but it was cold outside, unusually cold for late September, and the mansion was huge. She'd be here all night.  
Finally she found an opening in the vent, the room beneath almost entirely dark. She unscrewed the panel and stuck her head out in an attempt to see what was beneath her. For all she knew this could be a bedroom. The guards bedroom. Dropping straight onto a sleeping guard would be rather inconvenient. Of course she had snuck into the city's archives the night before to take a look at the plans for Erolds house. But of course the plans hadn't been there. Some quick research had shown that Erold himself had been the one to borrow the plans shortly before the diamonds had gone missing. He hadn't returned them since. In Lyns opinion that only made the man more suspicious. After all, why did he need plans to his own mansion? He knew what the place looked like after all.  
The room beneath Lyn turned out to be a study. She dropped onto the floor and took a moment to dust herself off, the little pieces of fluff turning into a big clump that she ended up throwing into the fireplace. Then she looked around. This was as good a place to start as any. The massive desk held nothing of interest. In fact it held surprisingly little. A few nearly worthless pens and a pile of letters to a woman named Augusta. Lyn quickly scanned one of the letters and immediately regretted it. It seemed to be page after page of Erold priding himself on his achievements, trying to win Augusta over. The rest of the study proved to be equally disappointing. Lyn moved on, searching both the servants quarters and the guards bedrooms. Admittedly the thief knew she probably wouldn't find anything there but it couldn't hurt to look. While she didn't find anything related to the piece she was after, she did find a pretty silver hair comb adorned with rubies in one of the servants drawers. 

 

On the other side of town, Garrett waited for two guards to pass before slipping out of a doorway and climbing onto a stack of crates. He had managed to secure another piece of the puzzle to open the watch's safe. Only one left.  
Silently he scaled the side of a building until he reached the roof. He desperately needed some time to think. These last few days even the clock tower had felt more like a cage than somewhere he called home. Erin had suddenly showed up, questioning him about the whole diamond business. She had only been to the clock tower once or twice before and he had asked her to come up then. This time she had just been there all of a sudden and he had nearly knocked her out, thinking she was an intruder. Well, in a way she had been.  
Erin had launched herself into a tirade about not being the one to work on the diamond job with him. Garrett had shrank back into the shadows, briefly considering knocking himself out to escape the yelling. He didn't think he had ever seen Erin quite so angry. Eventually she had calmed down a little and Garrett had used the chance to tell her she just wasn't ready yet, hoping this time would finally be the time he would get through to her. But as always it had only sparked Erin's fury more. Erin had made it very clearly that she didn't agree and was he really saying that that woman was better than her?!  
Garrett had sighed to himself. No matter what he said or did, it always seemed to be wrong when it came to Erin. She had a lot of potential but her unwillingness to listen and her inability to think before acting made her dangerous. And he never seemed to be able to get the point across.  
To his own surprise he found himself wishing Erin was a little more like Lyn. At least she had never yelled at him. Oh, and she had never killed any guards for no discernible reason around him. But he decided not to tell Erin that. He didn't know much about other people and how to have any kind of relationship with them, but even to him that didn't seem like a particularly helpful thing to say. So instead he had waited for Erin to exhaust herself and leave. He knew he needed to find a way to smooth things over with her but nothing had come to mind so far.  
Sighing he got up and decided it was time to head back home. Dawn would break soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Lyn moved through the rest of the house, strategically searching room by room. She found a few pretty little trinkets but not what she had actually come for.  
Eventually she found another study right next to what appeared to be Erold’s bedroom.  
This study looked far more promising, the files scattered on the desk all bearing the watch crest.  
A quick glance at the massive clock on the wall revealed that it was getting late. Lyn had to hurry.  
She checked for any hidden safes first and easily found one on a shelf behind a row of fake books. It held a few coin pouches and a rather expensive golden ring with diamonds. But no piece to open the damn watch's safe with.  
Sighing Lyn closed to the safe and put the fake books back in place. This whole safe thing was a big pain. There was no fun in a challenge when you knew you couldn't keep the reward. And she was sick of trying to track down some boring pieces of metal night after night. Lyn considered herself to be fairly good at her chosen profession and she had the track record to prove it. After all she was still alive. Garrett had turned out to not be too bad either. So why was this so difficult? How had Erold even gotten all the pieces together to open the safe?  
Lyn froze as the realization hit her. How had he gotten all the pieces? It seemed unlikely for the man to show up at the Baron’s mansion, asking him for his and his wife's pieces. After all the pieces had been split up so no one person could open the safe. Had they been wrong all along? Was there something more to this?  
No. Erold had to be the one behind the diamonds’ disappearance. But then how did he get the diamonds in the safe? Or were they not there to begin with?  
Lyn rubbed at her temples and rolled her shoulders in an attempt to ease the tension that was spreading up her neck to her head. Even if they returned the diamonds to their rightful owner, how were they going to make sure Erold would get what he deserved?  
They could hardly leave a note saying 'Have your diamonds back, Erold stole them but your friendly neighbourhood-thieves returned them.' Not like anyone would believe that. And even if they somehow got the message across that the diamonds had been hidden in that stupid safe, Erold could always claim he had nothing to do with it. After all, how could he possibly open the safe by himself? The man must have had some sort of help.  
Lyn moved back over to the desk and picked up one of the files there. The papers inside turned out to be rosters and payslips. Nothing of interest. Then again she didn't really know what she was looking for in the first place.  
Flipping through the second file turned out to be equally boring until she found an invoice from a locksmith. The name seemed familiar but Lyn couldn't work out where she had seen it before. There were only two items on the invoice - maintenance and replacement parts. It looked to be irrelevant and Lyn was about to set it down when she finally realized where she had seen the name before - he was the same locksmith who had designed and built the watch's safe. She didn't know of anything else he had done in the watch house and it seemed too strange to be just a coincidence. Lyn wasn't quite sure how to use the information for her own gain just yet but she folded up the invoice and put it in one of the pouches on her belt.  
But after all this she still hadn't found the piece she had been after. She had been in every single room of the house except Erold’s bedroom. Usually she stayed away from occupied bedrooms but tonight was going to be different. There was no way she could leave here without the piece. As quietly as somehow possible she snuck into the dark room. The light of the full moon illuminated everything, dipping the room in a silvery glow. Not exactly ideal conditions but she had to make do.

 

Erold was sprawled across the large bed, limbs tangled in multiple blankets. Lyn took a deep breath to calm herself and crept closer. The room was surprisingly bare and she didn't see anything suspicious that could have been hiding a safe so she had decided to start with the bed. Lots of people liked keeping their most prized possessions nearby, presumably because they felt they would be safer that way.  
A quick look through the only nightstand in the room revealed nothing out of the ordinary and Lyn was starting to hope the thief taker didn't carry the puzzle piece somewhere on his body. Holding her breath she carefully moved one of the blankets aside to get a better look at the man. There was a sturdy silver chain around his neck. Lyn's intuition told her that this was what she had come here for. But she had no way of knowing for sure, the front of the necklace covered by Erold’s massive body. Why couldn't the man just sleep on his back?  
For a moment Lyn considered just knocking him out but that would only turn him into dead weight, which she would be unable to move.  
Instead she slowly moved towards him and undid the clasp at the back of the chain before gently tugging on the thin sheet that he was laying on, hoping the disturbance would make him roll over. Ignoring the way her hands shook ever so slightly, the thief tried to find the perfect balance between enough disturbances to make the man move but not enough to wake him. Finally, just as she was about to give up, the giant man shifted onto his side. The chain slipped from his neck and rested on the bed besides him. It did indeed hold the piece of the puzzle Lyn was after and she quickly pocketed it. Then she made her way over to the open window and silently slipped into the night.

The full moon was still up and she had to be extra careful not to be seen by any guards in the silvery light. They were out patrolling the streets in full force, even this early in the morning. Soon the sun would rise and Lyn was almost dreading what this new day would bring, what horror stories she would wake up to this time. But she couldn't let herself think about that now. She would end up distracted and get herself killed. The thought almost made her laugh. At least she wouldn't have to worry anymore then.  
She was getting close to her hideout and had to resist the urge to go check on Elijah. It would only get the man into trouble or cause him even more unnecessary stress. Lyn just hoped he was doing alright. Admittedly she would have loved to hear his opinion on the locksmith's invoice she had found. But that wasn't going to happen. She'd have to figure that one out by herself.

When she finally arrived at her hideout she grabbed some food and emptied the various pouches she had filled up during the night. There hadn't been too much to steal and separating what she wanted to sell and what she wanted to keep was a quick task. She set the invoice aside for the time being. There was no point worrying about it while she was this worn out and exhausted.  
Lyn sighed as she wrapped the piece of the puzzle in the same cloth that already held the other two. It was the last one she had to retrieve. If Garrett had retrieved his pieces as well, all they needed was a plan to get to the watch's safe now. Then they could finally get the diamonds and end this nightmare. Between the watch guards and the Queen’s Redshields the streets had become crowded. Yes, there was a certain appeal in the challenge. But too many people had already died, the watch hanging at least two every day. Lyn had known most of them. Suppliers, thieves, fences. She had told herself that it didn't matter. They had been caught and she hadn't. At the end of the day they were all criminals and sooner or later there was a noose waiting for every single one of them. Including herself. But the guilt was still there. Two days ago they had even torched Elijah's shop. The damage hadn't been too bad and Lyn knew they wouldn't risk seriously harming the man because he was their best chance at catching her but she had still felt terrible. The day before that one of the men working for Erold, some general named Harlan, had dragged a young beggar through the streets by her hair, scraping the skin off her body along the rough cobblestones of the street. If Lyn thought about it for too long she could still hear her screams. She knew the young girl had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, her suffering brought on by the fact that both Lyn and Garrett visited the Queen of Beggars occasionally.  
Not caring had never really worked for her. Elijah always said she was too soft and right now Lyn wished the nagging guilt would go away. Even if it meant not caring about anyone or anything else.  
But there was no point pondering on it. The only thing she could do to resolve the situation was to get those damn diamonds back to their owner. And that was exactly what she was going to do. Preferably she would be able to get rid of Erold in the process. She looked over at the invoice again. 'Not now,' the thief told herself. But it was hard to stop the thoughts.  
While it was enough to return the diamonds and get the Queen's men out of the city, she was petty enough to want to see Erold gone. Even with the diamonds returned there was still a chance that the man would end up replacing the baron. After all Northcrest had failed to keep them save.  
But how could she use that invoice to her advantage? It had Erold’s name on it but that wasn't enough. Just leaving the invoice somewhere for the right people to find wasn't going to work. They wouldn't know the diamonds had ever been in the watch's safe and so the invoice wouldn't mean anything to them. But for now Lyn desperately needed to get some sleep.

The next day she decided to go check out the locksmith’s workshop. It was easy enough to get to and there were no guards there. The workshop itself was a dusty mess and Lyn wasn't entirely sure where to start looking. Admittedly this was way out of her comfort zone. She came across a few coins here and there but she didn't take them. This city was nothing without the people that kept it going, the people that worked hard every day. And they struggled enough as it was, they didn't need anyone taking what little they had. It was much more fun to steal from the rich.  
Other than the coins there wasn't much of interest. Just lots of tools and metal everywhere. Lyn wasn't even quite sure what she had hoped to find here. She had thought that she'd recognize anything useful once she'd see it. But she hadn't considered that there might not be anything useful at all. 'Too early to give up hope,' she told herself. There still was the office after all.  
Said office turned out to be a crammed little back room. The small desk was covered in various papers and Lyn methodically started working her way through them. Just like the invoice she had found at Erold’s, most of the notes were handwritten. There was one that caught her attention - a small piece of parchment with a number scribbled on it. It only took Lyn a few seconds to locate the safe, which was hidden rather badly behind the only potted plant in the room. Lyn would never understand why people brought plants into their houses. Wasn't that the point of living in a house - getting away from nature?  
But now wasn't the time to ponder on it.  
The combination on the parchment unlocked the safe. There was another pouch of coin, which Lyn pushed aside, as well as a fairly cheap silver ring in a small box. She left the ring as well. There were a hundred nicer rings she could steal, all of which didn't belong to people who had next to nothing anyway. And besides, she still felt bad about taking the hair comb from the servant’s room the night before. Usually she wouldn't have taken it but she had been so frustrated that pocketing it seemed to be the logical thing to do at the time. She had seriously considered taking it back but it wasn't worth the risk. Especially since Erold would have realized that his puzzle piece was missing earlier in the day.  
Focusing on the task at hand again, Lyn pulled out the only other item in the safe - a small burlap bag. It felt surprisingly heavy and when Lyn pulled out its content she gasped. The pieces weren't as polished and detailed as all the other pieces to the watch's safe that she had seen, but they were the same strange shapes. So much for 'replacement parts'. As she put the pieces into various pouches on her belt she wished she had gone to Erold’s first. It would have been substantially easier to just get all of them from here than climbing all over the city in an attempt to steal them from various places. But it was too late now.

The next day Lyn found herself waiting on a roof in a less patrolled area. She had arranged a meeting with Garrett the night before, thinking it appropriate to show him what she had found. Initially she hadn't wanted to share but they were stuck in this together and it would be quicker to just work together instead of making this harder on themselves than it already was.

  
_'The path of least resistance isn't always the better one,' Lyn had told Elijah years ago when he had refused to hire any other thieves because they were 'too difficult' to deal with. She smiled at the memory._  
 _'Getting poetic now, are we?'_  
 _'Just saying. It would be a lot better for your business to not only rely on me.' Lyn didn't need to mention that of course it was better for her if she remained the only thief Elijah hired._  
 _'It's fine.'_  
 _'What if I get killed?'_  
 _'Well, that would be... unfortunate.'_  
 _'I might come back to haunt you.'_  
 _'As long as you still bring me loot, you can haunt me all you want to.'_

  
Lyn sighed and looked over at the clock tower that was just visible through the fog. Half past eleven already. The other thief was late. He had never been late before and Lyn was starting to regret coming out here. It was a cool night, the fog an unwelcome dampness that seemed to spread over everything, leaving a chill in its wake. Maybe she should have taken her advice from all those years ago and tried to solve this by herself. Even if that would only make it harder. Lyn was abruptly pulled from her train of thought when she heard a soft scraping noise behind her. Then two figures showed up just a few meters behind her. She was just getting ready to run when one of the figures turned to the other and the now familiar voice hissed 'You need to be more quiet.'  
For all the mistrust Lyn had for the other thief, she hadn't thought him daft enough to bring someone else. But just as Lyn got to her feet and mentally prepared herself to give Garrett a piece of her mind, the other figure spoke.  
'No one is going to hear us up here anyway.'  
'That is not the point.'  
Frowning Lyn wondered if anyone was going to acknowledge her.  
'And there's no point meeting this person.'  
Did they know she was here? Or did she still have time to melt back into the shadow of the chimney, where she had sat just moments ago, and then slip away? She disliked meeting new people, especially when they were thrust at her like this.  
'Three's a crowd and two is one too many,' she thought to herself, then cleared her throat. Might as well get this over with.  
Both Garrett and the ominous figure looked over at her.  
Lyn grimaced at the realization that she really should have thought of something to say before attracting their attention. The problem was solved when the figure gestured at her. 'Look at this scrawny rat!'  
'Rude,' Lyn muttered. She wasn't even really any shorter than the other two. Just less well-built and more... well, scrawny.  
'That's enough, Erin,' Garrett said eventually.  
Erin, then. Not figure.  
'Why did you bring her?' Lyn asked.  
'So she could learn.'  
'Learn?'  
'Yes.'  
'And so far there has been nothing to learn, other than how to be boring,' Erin hissed.  
Lyn decided to ignore her. She wasn't quite sure what to say to the girl anyway.  
'Did you get the pieces?' Garrett asked.  
'Yeah. And... something else.'  
The man frowned at her and Lyn handed over a bag that contained the pieces she had stolen from the locksmith along with the invoice she had found at Erold’s. She watched as the other thief went through the pieces and almost sighed in resignation. She had given away her last chance at just fixing this by herself and she couldn't help but wonder if she had made a huge mistake. For a moment Lyn fought the urge to snatch the small pouch back and just run, get away, take care of the problem by herself, just like she always had.  
Then she realized Erin was watching her, a suspicious look on her face, and Lyn forced her muscles to relax.  
'Where did you get these?'  
'The invoice was on Erold’s desk and the pieces in the locksmith’s safe.'  
'We can use this.'  
'I know,' Lyn replied, keeping her eyes on the girl. There was something almost scary about her that made Lyn want to melt into the shadows behind her.  
They spent some time discussing what to do, considering their options. But the only thing they could come up with was to hide the pieces in Erold’s mansion right after they would hopefully find the diamonds in the safe and place them at the Barons house along with the invoice. The only problem was that it would require them to be in two places at the same time, neither one of them wanting the other to get the diamonds alone. Lyn tried to ignore the self-satisfied way Erin was smiling.

Garrett on the other hand was cringing inwardly at Erin's behaviour. She had always been troublesome, to put it mildly, and he had never quite figured out how to deal with her temper. So after her tirade the other day, he had thought involving her in this might smooth things over. Although he wasn't sure why Erin had been so angry in the first place.  
Secretly he had also hoped that maybe she would listen to Lyn. Lyn was reasonable and smart and would make a great role model for Erin, something he had failed to be. But of course Erin had been hostile from the start. Of course he didn’t quite trust Lyn either, but she had even brought the extra pieces she had found when she could have just as well used them to get inside the safe by herself. In his opinion, that was at least enough to drop the hostilities. Or maybe the issue wasn’t that Erin didn’t trust Lyn. Maybe there was something else. Admittedly Garrett’s people skills weren’t the best.  
In any case, they needed someone to hide the extra set of puzzle pieces in Erold's mansion. Erin was the obvious choice but Garrett wasn't sure she was ready to take that much responsibility on by herself, especially with the watch's increased patrols.  
'I can do it,' Erin said as if she was reading his thoughts.  
'No,' Garrett and Lyn replied simultaneously.  
At that Erin looked just about ready to tear their heads off.  
'You're not ready,' Garrett added softly, trying to calm her down a little. It didn't work.  
After a lengthy discussion that Garrett would have much rather avoided, they still didn't want Erin to be part of the job but they had also come to realize that Erin wasn't just the obvious choice, but their only choice, neither Garrett nor Lyn ready to give up moving the diamonds themselves. Somewhere in the back of Garrett’s mind a tiny voice told him this was an incredibly bad idea and his greed and stubbornness would get him into trouble someday, but he successfully ignored it. It was only a tiny voice after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: 90% of this chapter were already done when I posted the last chapter, but I split it up so it wouldn't end up being just one massive chapter. The only reason it took me so long to post is because I really struggled with the whole dialogue thing towards the end. I wanted Erin to be Erin, but I didn't want her to just come across as a total bitch because there's already enough hate for female characters as it is. I'm not really happy with how that turned out so next time we're going to hang out with Erin for a bit to see how she feels about the whole thing. Also this chapter accidentally turned into a 3,500 words monster but I didn't want to split it up again. We're getting closer to the end too, only 2-3 chapters left!


	11. Chapter 11

Erin was furious when she finally made her way back to the old mill she called home. How dare they treat her like she was some last resort option?  
She could easily do what she had been asked to do. In fact, she could have done it years ago.  
After all she was just supposed to hide a bag of some metal pieces that apparently unlocked the watch's new safe. Or something like that. It was a boring job that was way beneath her.  
Also what was with that woman? She was tiny, all skin and bones, and Erin doubted she could do anything much. So why did Garrett trust her more than he trusted Erin? Maybe trust wasn't the right word. It was more confidence in her ability. Erin scoffed at the thought. True, she hadn't seen the other woman do much but she just knew she was better than her. Erin was quick and fearless, without stupid morals holding her back. She should have been the one doing the diamond job in the first place.

  
Admittedly, it had stung when she had first found out about it. After the watch had started to increase their patrols and word had gotten out that they were missing some diamonds, Erin had gone to see Basso to find out if he knew anything about it, purely out of professional interest.  
But then he had told her that it had been Garrett and Lyn he had sent to do the job and Erin had been just about ready to punch something. It should have been her instead of Lyn. After all she was used to working with Garrett. And anyway, what kind of name was Lyn supposed to be? No one was called that.  
Basso had told her to calm down, it was probably just a nickname and besides, Lyn had far more experience than her. At that Erin had turned around and left. Why did everyone always doubt her abilities? She had worked hard to become good and she was able to break in just about anywhere.  
So when she had first heard that the watch knew exactly who to look for and that they were relentless in doing so, she had been rather pleased. They deserved it. But when things had gotten even worse and the watch started killing people for their inability to assist them in their search, Erin had become a little worried.  
Instead of saying she was worried she had of course acted like an angry, irrational idiot when she had gone to see Garrett. He hadn't been very impressed.

 

Lyn on the other hand wasn't so sure about Erin's abilities. But she didn't have much of a choice. Admittedly, she was in way over her head with this stupid diamond thing. There was nothing she could do about it anymore now though.  
She had met up with Garrett one more time to plan their fun trip to the watch's special safe. Lyn had hoped it would reassure her a little. It didn't.  
Sighing, Lyn curled up in her bed and hoped the next night wouldn't turn into a complete disaster.

_The darkness was almost unbearable, only a tiny sliver of light falling in from under the door. The thick brick walls blocked out every sound, the only thing she could hear the rapid beat of her heart, multiplied a thousand times by the silence surrounding her. How long had it been? There had been no food yet, so maybe only a few hours. Maybe they had forgotten her or no longer felt like feeding her and she had already been here for days. She didn't know. Her mouth felt terribly dry, a painful sting in her throat every time she swallowed._  
_Water. Cool, sweet water. The well behind the house. The stream in the forest. Wild, salty water. The ocean rolling against the shores over and over again. The angry tide tearing at her bare feet. Any kind of water. The cows waterhole at the back of the paddock._  
_Not hours then. She wouldn't be thirsty enough to want to drink from the waterhole after mere hours. A night, maybe. It didn't matter._  
 _She shivered. It was so cold._  
 _Ever since she had learned how to pick the lock, Bearings stripped her completely before locking her up. She hadn't learned how to hide things yet._  
_But soon. Soon she'd figure out where to put the wires she stole from the paddock fence. Then he'd never be able to lock her up again._  
 _She closed her eyes and tried to think of nothing. There was a soft cracking sound and dust fell down from somewhere above her. She opened her eyes again, but it was still too dark to see. She hugged her knees and rested her head on top of them, trying to save some of her body warmth._  
 _Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out._  
 _The cellar door squeaked and she scrambled to her feet. The sound of footsteps coming down the hall, closer and closer. Someone was at the door. There was nowhere to go. With a loud screaming noise the door opened. The figure was just a dark shadow against the well lit hallway, but she knew it was him. It could only be him. He reached out, grabbing her arm. She lashed out at him with her other one, the left one, the one with the scar. She froze, looking down at the lumpy scar on her forearm._ This wasn't real. Just a dream.

Lyn gasped and sat up, fingers blindly searching for the bumpy spot on her arm, reassuring her that what she had seen was really just a product of her mind. Her heartbeat started slowing as her fingers rubbed across the lumpy tissue. It had been years since the last time she had been locked up in that cellar. She would never be locked up in it again. It didn't matter anymore. So why did she keep reliving the times she had been trapped? And why was she still so scared? It didn't make sense.  
Frowning she looked outside. Judging by the light it was late afternoon, not long before sunset. 'Might as well get up,' Lyn muttered to herself. She still felt exhausted and dreaded having to go out. But complaining wasn't going to change anything so she had some food while checking through her gear. When the sun had fully set and night had fallen, Lyn headed out. There was a lot to do after all.

They all met up halfway between Erold's mansion and the watch house.  
Lyn reluctantly handed the spare set of pieces to Erin, pointing out once again that they were supposed to go into Erold's safe and that it was important. Erin just rolled her eyes at her. When she left Lyn couldn't help but to watch her disappear, an uneasy feeling spreading in her stomach.  
'Ready to go?' Garrett asked and Lyn shifted her attention back to the task at hand.  
'Let's do this.'

They made their way to the watch house. It took longer than expected because of all the guards everywhere, supported by the Queen's soldiers. Lyn wasn't overly worried about the ground patrols. They weren't too hard to outrun and they couldn't climb. The archers were a whole other thing. From what Lyn had heard the Queen's archers actually knew how to aim well. She wasn't too keen on finding out for herself.

For a moment they paused on the rooftop across from the safe house to watch the comings and goings. But with so many guards out and about, there wasn't too much going on there. Silently they slipped through the shadows to the same window they had entered through last time. Getting to the safe room was fairly easy and the traps were still disabled from the last time they had been here. The difficulties began when it came to putting the pieces in the correct slots. Lyn pulled a piece out of her pocket and tried to work out where to put it, but she couldn't even figure out which side was supposed to go up. Did it even matter?

Next to her, Garrett placed a piece down and the metal underneath it seemed to sink down until there was a soft click. Lyn frowned and turned her piece over again. Maybe it fit in the left corner? The edges of the metal frame looked like they might line up with the piece somehow. Meanwhile Garrett fit another piece into it's correct slot.  
Slightly annoyed, Lyn turned her piece over more aggressively.  
'Turn it to the left.'  
Lyn glanced over at Garrett for a moment, who had turned around to face her, before she looked back down and turned the metal in her hands.  
'My left,' Garrett clarified.  
Frowning she turned the piece to the other side.  
'Too far. Just go a little more to the right.'  
Lyn could have sworn she heard the man sigh softly when she turned the piece to the right, trying to work out how much 'a little' was.  
'No, just... no.'  
Shrugging the thief gave up and handed the piece to Garrett.  
'Really?'  
'I don't wanna be here all night.'

Garrett managed to finish the puzzle quite fast, the whole panel sliding back into the wall and to the left after he had placed the last piece in, revealing the inside of the safe. They looked at each other for a second before stepping closer to the opening.  
Just as they were about to see what was inside, a deafeningly loud alarm went off.


	12. Chapter 12

Lyn froze. All she could hear was the screaming of the cellar door as Bearing came for her. She could feel herself starting to hyperventilate but was unable to do anything about it. Next to her Garrett swore under his breath and sprung into action.

The safe was empty except for a small pouch on a shelf in a corner. He grabbed for it and pulled the top open. It revealed a bunch of beautiful diamonds with a slight pink tinge. He halfway expected Lyn to tell him to show her the diamonds, but when he turned around she still seemed to be glued to the spot.   
'We gotta get going.'   
Lyn blinked at him.   
'Come on!'  
Lyn followed him up the stairs that led away from the safe. He could hear the faint noise of boots on cobblestones now, along with the shouting of the guards. Judging by the sound they had about thirty seconds before they would have company. Garrett and Lyn had worked out two routes to get to their rendezvous point with Erin. One of them was faster, but also more dangerous. The other one was slower but safer. They were going to split the diamonds up, then each choose one route. That way no matter what happened to one of them, at least half the diamonds would still be returned. But looking at Lyn now, he wouldn't even have trusted her to carry a matchbox across town.

  
'Which route?' he muttered as they were storming out of the safe room.   
'Fast one,' Lyn muttered, her voice almost indistinguishable from her rapid, heavy breathing. Garrett was quite happy to have the safer route to himself, making his way out of the same window they had entered through just as he heard the first guards storm down the hallway. He quickly made his way to the top of the building, which provided easy access to the roof of the neighboring house. From there all he really needed to do was sneak along rooftops and avoid archers. Easy enough.

Lyn on the other hand had put no thought whatsoever into the decision which route to pick. All she knew was that she needed to get far away from that alarm as fast as possible. She darted across the street, only halfway covered by shadows, and squeezed into a tiny, abandoned alley. A rat jumped off a crate and disappeared under a stack of old boards. Lyn made it to the back of the alley before scaling a low wall, from which she was able to access the rooftops.

When she arrived at the rendezvous point, she wasn't quite sure how she had gotten there. But it didn't matter. Instead she focused on scanning the area. The streets around here were mostly abandoned, save for the patrolling guards and a carriage. She sat down at the top of the roof, in the shadow cast by the taller building across the street. This night hadn't been going particularly well for her so far and she couldn't wait to crawl into bed. Lyn expected a shift in power after tonight. Heads were going to roll. Figuratively and, most likely, literally. But she didn't care. She was going to wait at home for this whole thing to blow over. Read some books, replace her gear. She'd find something to do.  
A strange scratching noise brought her attention back to her immediate surroundings. The noise seemed to come closer steadily and Lyn got up quietly, reaching for her knife in the process. Usually she would have just hidden or ran, but she still had things to do tonight and people to meet right here. Besides, she could still run. Admittedly, running with a knife maybe wasn't her best idea, but she would be fine... right?

Before Lyn got to test her theory, a dark head showed up at the edge of the roof, followed by a body. Erin.   
'Oh good, it's only you.'   
'Only me?' Erin questioned as she made her way further up the roof. Then her eyes narrowed. 'What's with the knife?'   
Lyn shrugged and put the knife back in its place. A remark along the lines of _'I thought you might be a thief, but judging by how loud you were I knew that couldn't be it_ ' was on the tip of her tongue but she swallowed it, certain that Erin wouldn't appreciate it. But she couldn't stop herself from grinning just a little bit. Sometimes Lyn found herself hilariously funny.   
'What?' Erin asked way too loud for the other thief's liking.   
'Keep your voice down,' Lyn hissed at her, her previous amusement gone.  
'Or what?'   
For a moment all Lyn could do was blink at the girl and try to force a couple of deep breaths into her lungs. Somewhere deep inside her she could feel her temper flare and rise. _'This isn't the time or place...'_ Lyn told herself.  
'Cat got your tongue?' Erin asked then.   
'You damn arrogant brat,' Lyn spat out, 'quit acting like you're so much better than everyone else. You know nothing, you can't even climb up on a fucking roof without making it sound like a horde of cows is running down the street.' A voice in her head questioned the horde of cows thing, but it was quickly drowned out by her own anger.

  
Erin seemed taken aback and visibly struggled for a comeback. She took a step towards Lyn, which automatically made the other thief move back a little. Lyn dimly took notice of how close the edge of the roof was.  
'What gives you the damn right to talk to me like that? You don't even know me!' Erin eventually shouted at her. Good thing there was only a carriage in the alley beneath them or they would have surely been noticed.   
'I don't need to know you, I know your type. Always thinking you're something special just because you had such a hard time growing up. Poor little you.' Lyn kept her voice down but made sure her words were coming out laced with a mocking tone that Erin was sure to pick up on.

  
The girl took another step closer to her. This time Lyn didn't back away.   
Erin reached out and gave her a rough shove. Lyn was pushed back and tried to get her feet underneath her. But there was nothing there. She fell, racing towards the ground, her body hitting the carriage with a dull thud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one chapter left!


	13. Chapter 13

Erin froze, horrified, all her anger gone in an instant. The streets beneath her suddenly exploded with activity. Two men ran out of the tavern next to the alley, shouting something in a language Erin couldn't understand. A group of city watch men had appeared from somewhere. One of them pointed up and Erin shrank back just as the others looked up to see where he was pointing. This place wasn't safe anymore. Time to leave.

Just as Erin was about to climb off the roof, Garrett pulled himself over the edge.  
'We need to go,' Erin said, reaching for his elbow in an attempt to pull him along with her. He easily dodged her.  
'We can't go without...'  
'She's not coming,' Erin cut him off.  
She jumped from the roof to a tall wall at the end of an alley before using a crate to get to the ground. It took a moment but eventually Garrett followed her.  
'What happened?'  
Erin shook her head. 'Not now.'  
They came past the alley that the carriage was in. There was a huge commotion, a large group of people crowding around what was left of the carriage. The roof was gone and the sides looked terrible unstable. Garrett seemed to linger a second longer than necessary and when Erin turned around she could practically see him put one and one together.  
'Don't tell me...'  
'Not now,' Erin hissed again. She wasn't sure how she was going to explain the whole thing, trying hard to breathe through the nausea in her stomach. ' _No_ ,' she told herself, ' _it was her fault. She shouldn't have stood so close to the edge in the first place._ '  
It didn't help.

Erin hadn't originally been supposed to make the trip to the Baron's mansion but Garrett didn't question it. It was an uneventful trip, or at least it seemed so to Erin. Or maybe she was just distracted by other things.

They placed the pouch with the diamonds and the invoice for the spare set of pieces for the puzzle that unlocked the watch's safe on the Baron's desk, where it was sure to be found in the morning. Erin was almost sad when they left it there. She hadn't even had a chance to look at the diamonds.

Once they were a safe distance from the Baron's mansion, Garrett stopped on a roof but didn't turn around to face Erin.  
'What the hell happened back there?'  
'It wasn't my fault!' Erin blurted out. Then she grimaced. 'It was an accident,' she tried again in a slightly calmer tone.  
'Accident?'  
'Look, she was too close to the edge. She just... fell.' Erin hoped Garrett wasn't going to ask her for any more details. Right now she didn't seem able to come up with an even halfway believable story.

From the moment it had only been Erin at their rendezvous point, Garrett had had a bad feeling about it. It only intensified when Erin had blurted out that it hadn't been her fault. After all he had never suggested that it was. But he wasn't sure if it meant anything or not. Admittedly his ability to read people wasn't the best. And yet... He had seen Lyn climb. She had never looked like she was just going to fall.  
'It doesn't matter now anyway. She's probably dead already. And if the fall didn't kill her, the watch is going to finish the job,' Erin said.  
Garrett didn't agree with that but decided not to argue about it. Something told him he didn't want to know the details anyway.

  
Two weeks later a lot had changed. The Queen, her men and her damn diamonds had left. The Baron was still the Baron, but Thief-taker Erold had been replaced by a younger, crueler version of himself called Harlan. There had been a trial. Not a fair one, but it was still more than he had deserved. At least according to Elijah. He had been there when they had executed the man. They hadn't even hung him like a common criminal. Instead they had chopped his head off. Elijah hadn't even flinched when the blade had cut through the man's throat. He had no sympathy for any of them. After all, they hadn't had any sympathy for Lyn either. The watch had been so proud of themselves for 'catching' the thief that stole the diamonds. Strangely enough they hadn't paraded Lyn's body around the City, like Elijah had expected them to. While he hoped that whatever they had done with her body was at least respectful in some way, he doubted it.

He frowned. poured himself a glass of wine and couldn't help but to think back to the first time he had met Lyn. He had been nothing more than a beggar and a terrible one at that. People hadn't been willing to give any of their hard-earned coin to someone with his skin colour. One day he had woken up from a bad sleep in a dark alley. At first nothing had seemed out of place, but then he had noticed the girl sitting across from him, thoughtfully chewing on an apple. Elijah's own stomach had grumbled loudly.

_'What's your name?' he asked._  
_There was a long pause._  
_'Evelyn,' the girl said eventually, her voice barely more than a whisper._  
_'I'm Mary,' he told her. Then he remembered his resolution. If he was going to be treated like dirt anyway, he might as well be honest about who he was._  
_'Actually, my name is Elijah,' he corrected himself._  
_Finally the girl looked over at him, cocking her head to the side._  
_Elijah braced himself for what was to come. Even the youngest of children told him that he was 'a girl and couldn't have a boys name'._  
_Evelyn seemed to think for a moment. Then she looked away again._  
_'Are you hungry, Elijah?'_  
_He nodded furiously and the girl passed him an apple._

Elijah smiled at the memory. After that, she had appeared several times a week, always bringing him food. Eventually Evelyn had turned to Lyn. And eventually Lyn had brought him so much food that he had started selling it. In retrospect selling stolen food to orphaned kids didn't seem like a very noble thing to do, but back then he hadn't minded. Lyn and him had used the coin to buy themselves nicer food.

_'If only we had something rich people wanted,' Elijah mused, 'we could make so much more coin.'_  
_Lyn shrugged. 'I can steal other stuff.'_  
_'What?'_  
_'I don't know, like jewelry and things.'_

And just like that, Elijah the fence had been born. In the span of only a few years, he had made a name for himself. Without Lyn, none of it would have been possible. And now she was gone, just like that.

Elijah sighed and poured himself another glass of wine. It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...aaaaaaaand we're done! Only took over two years haha. But hey, I got those last three chapters out in like a week. Can you tell I have heaps of work I'm trying to avoid doing? 
> 
> Anyway, I have decided that there is going to be a second part! I'm currently working on a title (yikes) and just trying to sort out the details of the plot. First chapter is almost done so hopefully it will be up some time this week, yay


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